Left Outside
by Teinien
Summary: It takes a lot to change that first impression! Draco knows that if you been the bad guy for years it takes a lot to make people around you believe that you were never truly evil. Draco kinda OOC trying to change peoples view of him after the war. HG/DM
1. Wishing for a change

**I decided to write a one-shot as a bit of a warm up, to see if I still have the power to come up with a decent story. =) I hope it turns out the way I want but it was very easy to write, since the idea has been stewing in my mind for a few days. For some reason I come up with most of my ideas at work, while packing outgoing cargo, so I end up writing down ideas on small pieces of paper that I stick in my pocket. As for now, there is quite a big heap of them next to me, complete with dirty fingerprints and coffee mug rings. Very professional, huh? =P**

**This originally started as a one-shot but it ended up turning much longer then I thought it would be, so I decided to split it into at least two chapters, maybe even continuing it into a full story if there is enough interest. **

_**Disclaimer: **_

**I don't own anything, well at least nothing connected to Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling.  
****Am I allowed to own my apartment?**

**PLEASE REMEBER THE MAGIC R's - _READ & REVIEW!_**

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**Chapter 1**

Draco was fuming with anger has he stomped down to the quidditch patch. A few younger students quickly got out of his way when they saw the murderous look on his face and that only made him angrier. It was that kind of attitude that had pissed him off from the start. He reached the door to the boys changing rooms, tore it open and slammed it shut behind him two seconds later. He pulled on the door to his locker and then kicked it in frustration when it did not open before he slumped down with his back against it. Why did people still threat him like he would jump them at any moment and Avada Kedavra them? Leaning his head back against the locker and closing his eyes he thought back on the day that just passed.

o

Honestly it had started as a good day as he woke up feeling refreshed and happy, got dressed and went to have breakfast. When he stepped out of the door to the dungeons and walked past the staircases leading down from the upper floor a few first year olds had come running down the stairs and one of them collided with him, before falling backwards, hitting her elbow against one of the stone pillar supporting the railing of the stairs. It was here his day had started to go wrong.

She started crying of course, since it must have hurt quite a bit, but when he reach down to help her up she quickly moved away from him, looking terrified through her tears. Her friends quickly closed in around her, comforting at the same time as they sent glares in Draco's direction, looking both scared and defiant at the same time. It was very clear that they would not let him come close to their friend, even thought he could have healed her injuries in mere seconds using the _Episkey_ spell on her.

He sighted and continued into the Great Hall hastily making his way over to the Slytherin table before he could do any more damage. Blaise was already seated on his normal spot and Draco slipped in next to him.

"Morning" he said before tucking in on a piece of roast bread with marmalade on. Blaise, who was busy chewing a mouthful of porridge just nodded in greeting. They ate in silence and neither of them spoke until they left they had left the Great Hall and was heading back to the dungeons to grab their schoolbags before class. Blaise was whistling while they walked and the sound echoed of the bare stone walls.

"Can you please stop that?" Draco asked making an annoyed face. "You'll give me a headache."

Blaise stopped and snorted.

"Someone's in a grouchy mood today" he pointed out.

"Well yeah" Draco sneered. "First thing I do is getting run into by clumsy first years, one of them falling over and getting hurt and in the end I'll probably get the blame for it."

"Why didn't you help her out" Blaise scolded.

"Don't you think I tried?" Draco snapped. "They won't even let me get close to them you know, have you forgot that I'm the big bad Death Eater that nearly killed Dumbledore? It could be oh so dangerous to get anywhere close to me or even worse, come in physical contact with me!"

He clenched his fists when the rage welled up inside him

"Why do they treat me like I'm some kind of dangerous criminal!" he snapped. "The war is long over and still they seem to think that I'll suddenly snap and kill everyone around me. Why won't they understand that people change? I never wanted to be the Dark Lords tool in the first place, I did it so he would not kill my parents. Is that so wrong?"

Blaise sighted.

"I don't know mate, I really don't. They treat me the same, you know it. It seems we can't get rid of the image of being big bad Death Eaters, at least not in the eyes of the younger students. The older ones aren't so bad, they know the pressure of trying to protect those you love, at whatever cost it takes. "

Draco nodded. He had to agree with Blaise. Most 6th and 7th year students from the other houses were, if not friendly, polite to the few of the remaining Slytherins. They knew the perils of war exactly as well, and there was no heavier burden to carry then the knowledge that the people you loved could live or die, depending on if you did what you been told to do.

He couldn't actually say that they had forgiven him, but at least they gave him a second chance to prove that he wasn't the kind of person they thought he was, and he was grateful, he, Draco Malfoy was really grateful for it.

The problem lay in the younger students, who had heard stories from their siblings or family members about the war and the horrors it held. And they had of course heard stories about the dreadful Slytherins and their unofficial leader Draco Malfoy. Judging by the stories circling among the first years he was the next Dark Lord to be and would not hesitate a second to turn them in to a pile of dust or worse, if they so much as looked at him. Okay, in the beginning he didn't really care that the younger students ran away screaming as soon as they saw him, it left the corridors pleasantly empty and easy to move in. But over time it grew annoying and the stories grew larger, with more horrible details each day and by now it seemed that just seeing him would result in terrible things happening to you. It was getting on his nerves.

It's a hard thing to change the image that people have of you, he had read somewhere that you have about 20 seconds to make a first impression on a person, and that was it. Now the young students had had months to create their impression of him as a person and it was even wearing of on the 1st and 2nd year students in Slytherin. He was so god damn tired of people scurrying away like scared mice as soon as they saw him.

This morning had been just the same, him trying to repair the damage he accidentally cause and it ends up with the whole group of kids ganging up on him to 'protect' their friend from the dangerous Death Eater. He just wanted to shout '_Wake up, God damn it, the war is over and the Dark Lord is gone! I'm not one of his servants so stop treating me like I have the plague!' _Of course he wouldn't do that, mostly since it wouldn't have any effect more then to scare the damn kids even more. He sighted again and decided not to think more about it and instead concentrate on his upcoming lessons.

o

The lessons of the day went by in the same semi boring way they always did. Draco had almost fallen asleep during the double hour of History of Magic, but that wasn't anything new since the voice of professor Binns, the ghost holding the lessons, could lull anyone into deep sleep almost faster than a severe blow to the head. Draco wondered if the little ghost ever left the classroom, or if he just stood there, day as night, maybe holding old lessons for students who left Hogwarts many many years ago.

He and Blaise were on their way back to the dungeons since they had a free period before lunch, and the food in the Great Hall would not be served for at least another hour when the next catastrophe of the day occurred. Draco honestly blamed this one on Blaise, since he, in Draco's eyes was the one who started the whole circus by stumbling in the stairs, and as he fell he just grabbed hold onto whatever his hands closed around. His left hand caught the railing of the stairs and it would have been absolutely fine if he hadn't, with his right hand, managed to grab the hem of the skirt of a 4th year girl from Ravenclaw that was just passing by. Not managing to completely stop his fall with his left hand he succeeded in yanking the poor girls skirt down to her knees before stopping. The silence that followed lasted only a few seconds before the girl overcame the shock.

"HELP! I'm getting molested by Slytherins!

Since Blaise was on his knees and hands all eyes were first turned up on Draco, standing crestfallen in the middle of the stairs with a skirt-less Ravenclaw girl in front of him that had just burst into tears. Okay, there weren't many students in the hall, but it didn't need to be. The gossip mill of the school was as efficient as ever. He carefully reached out for the girl, realizing at the same time that might not be a good idea. She stumbled back, skirt still tangled around her legs.

"Don't touch me!" she screamed trying to keep herself upright. More people came out from nearby corridors to see what the ruckus was all about and Draco didn't think it could get much worse when he heard a voice behind him.

"And what is going on here, Mr. Malfoy?"

He was almost, he had to admitted, even if it put a dent in his Malfoy pride, afraid to turn around. Behind him stood no one else then Headmistress McGonagall with a stern look on her face. Man, that woman was good at showing up when trouble occurred. She held his gazes without flinching and was clearly waiting for a response.

"Uhm..." he begun in a very no Malfoyish way. "There was an accident."

"It's true, Headmistress" Blaise supplied from the floor, where he was sitting examining a cut on his leg from where he had hit the stairs when falling. "I was clumsy and fell over and in my actions to stop my fall I happened to grab onto this girls skirt and I assure you it was not my intention." He turned to the still crying girl that was bright red out of embarrassment. "I'm sorry, Miss."

McGonagall looked firmly at the two boys and the young girl before nodding.

"I see no reason not to believe you" she stated. She turned to the crying Ravenclaw girl. "What is your name, young lady?"

Draco thought to himself that with that phrase she sounded just like someone's old granny.

The girl hiccupped before answering.

"Amanda Wicket" she stated in a low voice. In an even lower voice, almost drowned by the small sobs still escaping her she said. "Please, Miss Headmistress can you make them go away, I don't want them here, they scare me!"

McGonagall turned to Blaise, who now was on his feet again, and Draco.

"I think you should respect the young lady's wish" she stated in the calm serious tone she used on students when they she thought they caused a problem in some way. "But before you go I demand that you apologize to her."

Draco opened his mouth, an '_I'm sorry' _almost on his lips before he shook himself.

"Why should I apologize?" he snapped, starting to get more and more annoyed with this day for every passing moment. "I didn't do anything to her, I was just standing here!"

The Headmistress made a small snorting sound.

"Well, it seems like just standing there has made this young lady burst into tears. If that is the case, Mr. Malfoy, I seriously think you should consider the way you stand around other people."

The sarcasm in her voice was clearly audible and Draco muttered something that could have passed for '_Sorry'_ and proceeded to go down the stairs. Blaise said a more sincere apology even if he already said it once and hurried after Draco, who already, followed by the whispers of all the present students, had reached the doors to the dungeons.  
On the other side of the door it was silent and chilly and the two boys walked silently for a while before Blaise cleared his throat.

"I really doubt this will help us out of our position as two of the most loathed persons on the school."

"No kidding?" Draco snapped as they reached the stone wall that held the entrance to the Slytherin dungeons. "In a few hours the gossip mill will have turn this into how we almost raped that poor girl on the stairs!"

He angrily tapped three stones in the wall and snarling the password. Even before the stones moved completely he had stomped into the common room and threw himself onto one of the green sofas. Blaise followed him and sat down in an armchair, flinging his legs over the side. They sat in silence, Draco taking deep breaths to let his anger die down so he would not hex the first person speaking to him, mostly because that would only add onto his already deformed reputation. He waved his wand over the empty sofa table next to him, conjuring a big mug of steaming coffee. He sometimes wondered why it had been the muggle community that had come up with something as amazing as coffee and at the same time he loathed his father's stubbornness against anything muggle, since it meant he never tasted coffee until the age of seventeen. By now he was an addict and had come up with the conjuring spell himself, just to be sure to always have a fresh mug of coffee when he wanted one. A coffee machine wouldn't work in the school anyways. As he took the first sip of the coffee he wondered if the day could get any worse. He doubted it could.

o

Now, sitting against the cold door of his locker he knew he had been wrong. It got worse, indeed it did. And this time he could not blame anyone else then himself.

o

After the disaster in the stairs he and Blaise had stayed in the common room for almost the whole lunch break, not leaving until it was only ten minutes left before the next lesson, taking a detour past the kitchens for a few sandwiches and making their way to their last lesson of the day. Since it was double hour of Potions, Draco's favorite subject he decided it would brighten up his day. That was of course until he was pared up with the Golden Boy himself, whom he still didn't get along with very well. Almost six years of fighting, and him being involved in the killing of Dumbledore hadn't really made a base for a decent relationship. So they worked in silence, following the carefully written notes on the blackboard. It went well, after almost an hour their potion looked almost perfect, only beaten by Granger and her partner's potion, which didn't surprise either of them.

It would have stayed that way if Draco hadn't messed up. He didn't mean to and he blamed a part of it on professor Slughorn who had walked over and stared talking to him while he was carefully counting Wobblewilly seeds before turning to Potter and they both leaned over to examine the potion. Somewhere along those lines he lost track of counting without releasing it and when he dumped the seeds into the bubbling cauldron it, to put it simply, exploded.

Not in the 'bang-everyone-is-covered-in-goo' way, but it cascaded up in the air, forming a billowing cloud changing quickly between all the different colors of the rainbow. As fast as he could he stepped away from the hissing, spitting cauldron and tried to see something on the other side of the smoke.

"_Scorgify_" he muttered and the oozing liquid in the cauldron vanished. Along with it the smoke started to disappear and he could once again see the other side of the classroom. Most students were staring, but not at him and he groaned when he took in the sight before him.

In front of him was Professor Slughorn probably looking livid with rage, thought it was a hard case to judge through the different shades of green that colored his face and the front of his robes. And next to him, Harry Potter, the schools savior and the hero of the wizarding world, in a bright shade of purple. In his case it did not only affect his skin and clothes but also his hair, which had turned a bright shade of light pink. Both of them where dripping with liquid.

'He looks like a lollipop' a part of Draco's mind thought. The rest of it was busy thinking. 'Oh, gods, I'm dead. When this hit's reaches the students, and it will, it will be told as the **'Our hero Harry Potter viciously attacked by former Death Eater Draco Malfoy.'**

His train of thoughts was disrupted by laughter. Both Blaise and Potters mate, the Weasel was no longer holding back their laughs. For a brief second he wondered if he also had been affected by the messed up potion and quickly glanced down on his robes. To some relief at least he was still his normal color, even if that only would help on spreading the rumor about him 'attacking' Potter. He glanced at the colorful pair again and this time he could no longer hold in a laugh. Potter had removed his glasses and was trying to clean them of and to the amusement of most of the class he still had his normal skin color around his eyes, giving him a look of a discolored panda. The laugh caught in his throat as professor Slughorn turned to him.

"You find this amusing, Mr. Malfoy?" he asked in a stern voice.

"No, sir" Draco stated, suddenly not the slightest bit entertained by the view in front of him.

"There is nothing funny about a mistake in potions" the professor said, turning to address the whole, still partly giggling class. "It could have resulted in a very serious accident. At your age you should be very aware of the dangers it holds. This time it went well, thank goodness, but next time the potion might as well turn into some kind of skin melting highly poisonous substance by a single mistake, so, and I only say this once, DON'T let there be any more mistakes!"

The last laughter died quickly at this statement. Slughorn turned to Draco.

"30 points deducted from Slytherin for careless behavior. You are dismissed from the lesson, Mr. Malfoy."

Without another word he turned back to Potter and told him to go directly to the hospital wing so that Sister Pomfrey could take a look at him. Draco put his head in his hands.

'Absolutely wonderful' he thought. 'Now he's going to walk through the school playing a human candy cane as well. The other students won't only hear the story, they will see the so called evidence of the 'attack' as well.'

"I thought I told you to leave, Mr. Malfoy."

The demanding voice of Slughorn broke through his train of thoughts and he picked up his bag and left the room. The rage inside was increasing by the minute. He had tried so hard to wipe away the picture of him as an evil Death Eater and as soon as it seem like he managed to get further away from his past something happened that made him fall right back in the old image people held of him.

He snarled and was about to punch his closed fist into the wall next to him, even if it would result in a sprained wrist, when he heard footsteps behind him. He didn't turn his head until someone called his name. The voice belonged to the last person he wanted to see or hear at this moment.

"What do you want, Potter?" he snapped as he turned around.

Potter made a face and then shrugged.

"I know you didn't do it on purpose. It wasn't really fair of Slughorn to yell at you like that."

"The last thing I need is your pity!" Draco snarled and before Potter could say anything else Draco had sprinted out of the dungeon door and out onto the school grounds.

**Hope you liked the first part of my story! If you didn't, I want positive critic, not flames. And of course, I want nice reviews as well, if you think I deserve them! **

**/Miriam**


	2. Locked doors lead to open windows

**This is the second part of my one-shot story that turned out to long. As it looks now it might even turn into a trilogy. =S Why is it impossible for me to write a short, simple story? Hopefully I can keep it inside two chapters. (Personally I doubt it, since I already have ideas on how to continue this spinning in my head.)**

**Disclaimer:**

**I don't own anything, at least nothing connected to Harry Potter or J.K. Rowling. I prefer to keep my clothes, thank you.**

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**Chapter 2 **

Draco sighted and leaned his head back against the locker when the realization hit him that Potter hadn't even been unfriendly to him, probably for the first time ever, and he just snapped at him and ran off.

'Great job, you idiot' he scolded himself. 'Like you'll ever have a chance to change what people think about you if you just snap at them when they try to be nice to you.'

He leaned his head on his arms and looked at the lockers on the other side of the room. There was no way that he would return to the castle for now, he would have to deal with the whispered rumors concluding, in a colorful and absolutely incorrect version, the happenings of the past day. Draco felt like a coward and hated it, but he was so damn tired of dealing with the 'oh-my-god-no-you-are-an-evil-death-eater-I-cant-be-close-to-you' image that had been glued stuck to his person. He just couldn't. What he wanted the most was to get on with his life, away from all pureblood prejudging and old childish 'I'm-better-than-you' behavior that had trademarked his life until the end of the war.

He knew that it would be hard to changed peoples view of him, since he'd honestly been directly cruel during most of his time at the school and when he wasn't he'd been a spoiled brat flashing of his dads connections to the Dark lord like it was something to be proud of.

Draco stretched and stood up, deciding to take a flight on his old broom. He hadn't touched it for a very long time, since being in the middle of a war puts a serious dent into things like quidditch practice.

This time the lock opened without any trouble and he picked the broom out. It was a bit dusty and the bristles a bit untidy, but he smoothed them out as good as he could. Something glimmering in the depth of his locker caught his eye. On the top shelf, lonely and discarded lay a Golden Snitch. He didn't remember where he got it, probably kept it after winning a game sometime. Holding it in its hand he gently blew the dust of it and saw the small wings flutter to life. The Snitch whooshed up and past his ear and started circling the small room. Draco watched it, a small smile in the corner of his mouth. How he had missed Quidditch. He grabbed his broom and headed for the doors that lead to the big playfield. When he opened one of them the Snitch flew past his head with a low whirring noise. It was already high up in the air, presumably happy to retrieve freedom, when he mounted his broom and shot up in the air.

Feeling the wind whirling around him, sending strands of blond hair in his face and muffling his hearing he started to relax for the first time in months. He lazily zigzagged across the field a few times to get the feel of his broom back before he made a dive and then rose again. He playfully tumbled around in the air for a little while before starting to search for the snitch. It wasn't anywhere to be seen. He knew it couldn't move far from the pitch on its own accord but there where lot of places for a tiny golden ball to hide. Circling slowly he searched for it. And there it was, hovering between two of the towers that usually held the audience. Draco darted after it and it lopped away from him, almost tauntingly. He chased it in and out between the towers and the goalposts not really making an effort to catch it. This was just what he needed. With a sudden dive he caught the Snitch and held it in his right hand, looking at the struggling ball. Did he really want to quit flying already? Draco could feel the answer in his whole body so he released it again and started the chase it once more.

ooo

Harry was sitting on one of the beds in the Hospital Wing, rubbing a big white towel over his hair in an attempt to dry it up. It would have been much easier to use a drying spell but Madame Pomfrey had told him not to use any magic on himself until she was sure that the potion accident hadn't resulted in any side effects. He looked up from under the towel when he heard footsteps on the floor and he wasn't the slightest bit surprised to see Ron and Hermione. Both of them had relived looks on their faces when they saw he was back to his normal colors again.

"You should hear the talk around the school, mate" Ron exclaimed. "Somehow it's turned into how Malfoy in secret mixed up, and I don't think you will be surprised on this, the flesh-melting thing that Slughorn warned us it could have turned into. But that's where it failed and instead you where transformed into a purple panda and Malfoy was magically vanished to Azkaban or something like that. And it's only been about few hours since the accident. I honestly can't wait to hear what it's turned into by tomorrow."

At this point he was grinning wildly and Harry couldn't help smiling. He knew the stories where a bit cruel to Malfoy, but Harry himself had also been a target for many messed up rumors, mostly because of said Slytherin. Somehow it was nice to be on the other side for once.

"I'm not surprised at all" he said, removing the towel from his head and hanging it over the bedpost next to him. "This schools gossip mills are as unique as the rest of the place."

A small giggle escaped Hermione and he looked up at her. She had her hands over her mouth but her eyes where sparkling with mirth as she kept her eyes on him. Ron also sprouted an amused look.

"May I ask what's so fun with my appearance this time?" he said, in a fake serious voice. "Have I sprouted antennas or something?"

"No" Hermione answered no longer trying to stop laughing. "But I think you should take a look in a mirror."

Harry gave her a puzzled look before getting up.

"If he managed to disfigure me somehow I will find that Ferret spell, make it permanent and use it on his ass" he stated in a half serious voice. When he reached the mirror that hung over the sink in one end of the room he couldn't help but crack a smile himself. He turned his head from side to side before he started to laugh.

"Well, it could have been worse. Too bad it doesn't match my eyes" he managed to state before he started to laugh again. The amused boy in the mirror looked just like he should, except the fact that this boy had his black unruly hair streaked with pink and purple strips. This would indeed be the talk of the school for some time.

After being checked one last time by Madam Pomfrey the trio left the Hospital Wing and made their way down from the third floor they were indeed stared at. Some of the older students stopped them and asked what happened to Harry's hair and Harry would explained what had occurred earlier, even thought he knew it wouldn't really matter in the end. A lie could run around the world before truth got its boots on. And on top of that lies were usually more interesting.

And you had to be deaf not to hear the new stories already circling around. How Malfoy and another Slytherin student had cornered a Ravenclaw girl and tore her clothes of or how bravely some 1st years had defended their friend when he suddenly had attacked them while they were on their way to breakfast.

"It might sound weird" Hermione said as they sat down at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall. "But I'm actually starting to feel sorry for Malfoy. He really tries to prove that he isn't a bad person, but all these incidents that wouldn't mean a thing if it was someone else then him involved in them just pushes him back to where he was before. Have you realized he hasn't messed with us at all since school started?"

The boys paused in their eating, thinking for a moment

"I think you're right" Harry said when he had swallowed the piece of food he'd been chewing. "Sure, he's been snappy and irritated but that's no real surprise. But I still don't know if I trust him, he did change side very late in the war."

"I'll never like his arse" Ron growled. "He treated all of us like shit for years and he was the one letting Death Eaters into the school. It's his fault that people died here!"

He angrily stabbed a piece of toast with his fork and glared down on his food. With a voice that cracked a bit he whispered.

"It's his fault that Fred is dead…"

Hermione and Harry couldn't really say anything to that. They sat in silence for a while.

"I used to blame him for killing Dumbledore" Harry spoke in a low voice. "I used to think that he wanted to do it, to gain credit in front of Voldemort. After seeing Dumbledore's memory from the evening when he talked to Malfoy I know that I was wrong. Malfoy was as scared as us, maybe even more, because his actions controlled the fate of his whole family. Voldemort ruled his followers with treats and pain and many felt forced to obey because they were to afraid not to. I don't say he did the right thing, and I still blame him somewhat, but I think I also understand why he did what he did. I'd probably done the same to keep my family safe from harm."

The silence fell once again, the subject being too serious to try to joke away. None of them felt like eating more, Ron was the first to push his plate away and soon Harry followed. Hermione watched the boys, knowing the pain they both felt, the same pain she felt. The war had changed them all in different ways, no one could come out of that untouched. She sighted and looked at the two boys.

"We all admit that we change during the war. Maybe it's time for us to admit that it applies to everyone else as well, including Malfoy?"

ooo

Hours later, when it was already starting to get dark outside Draco finally landed on the field, the Snitch circling his head when he walked to the changing room. As he tucked the broom into the locker he motioned for the little ball to go back onto the shelf. Instead it flew high up under the ceiling and stayed there, floating, as if to tell him that it was not going back into that locker again. He laughed at it, feeling some of the built up tension release, it felt so good to be able to relax, If just for a while. He shivered a bit, for the last thirty minutes it had been really cold outside and it looked like a storm was drawing up over the mountains. He decided to take a shower to get warm before he headed up to the castle again. Maybe he could sneak past the kitchens and grab some dinner.

He snatched his towel from its hanger in the locker and proceeded to the showers. Hot water would be the perfect cure, both from the shivers and the sore muscles from flying for so long. To be honest he didn't really have a clue on what time it was. It was also unknown to Draco how long he stood under the hot drizzling water, just letting his mind wonder and his body relax and it wasn't until he almost slipped and fell from more or less sleeping in a standing position that he decided that he was done.

Quickly getting dressed he headed for the exit, but stopped halfway and returned to his locker to retrieve his broom. It didn't feel right to leave it there. If he saw it more often it might remind him to go flying more frequently. When he headed for the door the second time the Snitch flew down from where it had been hiding and started to circle him again. He wondered if Snitches could hold a personality, because this little thing seemed to have taken a liking to him.

'At least someone likes me' he thought only half joking with himself.

As soon as he opened the door he realized he'd been showering for way to long. The storm he thought he'd been seeing when he left the field had reached the school grounds and heavy rain was pouring down from an almost black sky. He could hear thunder as well.

'So much for that shower' he thought as he stepped through the door, closed it and then ran for the castle, splashing water around him and getting completely drenched. Sliding and wiping wet hair out of his face he reached the big oak doors leading into the Great Hall and tugged on one of the big handles. Nothing happened. He tugged harder, putting all his strength behind the pull and this only concluded in a rattling sound. The doors had been locked from the inside. Taking two steps back into the pouring rain he locked up at the big magical watch over the door. Almost ten minutes past ten. And the doors were locked at ten pm sharp. Damn. He considered going back to the changing room before he realized that all doors locked at ten and that he probably just left the changing rooms before it locked itself. He sat down on the stairs, trying to get as close to the big doors as possible but the rain still spluttered and splashed on him.

'Okay' he thought. 'What options do I have? I could bang on the doors until someone hears me, but that would put me in even more trouble than I've already been in today. Or I could sit out here for the rest of the night, slowly getting drowned. What wonderful choices.'

He looked out over what he could see of the school yard in the heavy rain and something caught his eye. Some way out onto the grounds was a weak square of reflected light. He jumped to his feat and without caring, since he was already soaked to the bone, ran out onto the grounds and turned around. Draco was awarded with the view of one window, high up on the castle, probably on the 7th floor, he decided, where the soft light of lit candles flickered at him.

He praised his luck that he decided to bring his broom along and mounted it, hesitating for a second, knowing that flying around in a thunderstorm was among the top five things not to do if you wanted a long and healthy life. He ignored that fact for the time being and took off from the ground, struggling to keep the broom in order in the wind howling around the tins and towers. With some effort he reached the lit window and tried to peer inside to see if someone was present that could open it for him. But the rain flooding down the glass made it impossible to see anything clearly, so he headed for plan B, which consisted of knocking heavily on the window itself. Over the sound of the rain, wind and thunder he thought he heard a muffled yelp and then footsteps approaching. To his relief a silhouette showed up against the light and in less than a minute the window creaked open. He was met by the surprised face of no one else then Hermione Granger.

"Malfoy!" she exclaimed in surprise. "What in all heavens are you doing outside?"

**I know this turned into a very short chapter but I really wanted to end it right here, and yes, that means the story will be longer than 2 chapters. I even added the section in the Hospital wing just to make it a bit longer, but also to give some information on Harry, Ron and Hermione's view of things. **

**I think I can give the idea of a one-shot up for good now, since I'm not even halfway to the point where I considered ending the story from the beginning. I guess it could have turned out as a decent one-shot, but then it would lack a lot of the details, reactions and background things that I personally think are essential for a good story. But that also means the story turns out much longer. Good thing I like writing. =) And to be honest, I have some hope for this story to turn out really well even if I'm not totally satisfied with this chapter.**

**Magic R's please! Critic and nice comments are always helpful, flames are not since they leave burn marks on the furniture. **

**And have a great weekend as well! **

**/Miriam **


	3. What you need is coffee

**Here comes Chapter 3, which I only had vague ideas on how to write, but I hope it turned out decent at least. I have some trouble with making some scenes believable, since I personally have major trouble with the somewhat unrealistic way the characters drop all grudges. It's easy with, for example, Hermione since she's a nice person in herself, that cares about other people a lot. But still, it would be unreal for most of the characters to suddenly drop all kinds of grudge against each other. I better stop now, before I give away all the details in the story already. **

**Disclaimer:**

**I don't own Harry Potter (Honestly, I don't even want too. Who wants him?) or any of J.K. Rowling's work. I don't even own myself anymore, my cat does. **

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**Chapter 3**

Draco knew he must be a sight for the gods, being drenched to the bone and floating mid air outside a window on the 7th floor in the middle of a raging thunderstorm with a Golden Snitch circling him like a small planet. Granger was still gawking at him, her mouth half open and the wind making her hair billow around her face. Draco couldn't help but laugh out loud in the middle of the pouring rain.

"May I come in?" he shouted over the drumming of the rain, not even trying to hide mirth still clearly heard in his voice.

Without a word Granger stepped aside but kept her grip on the window. The wind was tugging at it, trying to fling it against the outer wall. Draco carefully landed on the windowsill and stepped down from the broom before he jumped down on the floor, drops of water scattering around him. He quickly turned around and helped Granger with the window, both of them pulling as hard as they could to close it again. The snitch flew inside in the last minute and started circling the room, spreading small droplets of water everywhere.

Leaning against the wall next to the window Draco took a couple of deep breaths before he turned to look at the girl next to him. She was stained with rain and had an annoyed look on her face as she saw the pool of water spreading around his feet, slowly soaking into a nearby carpet. She pulled out her wand from somewhere inside her robes and for a second he thought she was about to hex him. Then she mumbled a spell and when he felt his clothes instantly warm up and dry Draco realized it was just a warming spell. She cast the spell a second time removing the water still on the floor.

"Thanks" he said, trying to get his hair in some kind of order using one hand, since the other was still holding on to his broom. It didn't work very well. Granger was just looking at him with a mix of annoyance and puzzlement on her face. He just waited since he knew she couldn't stop herself from sooner or later asking him what the heck he'd been up to. And he was right.

"Malfoy, do you care to explain what you are doing outside the castle in the middle of the night on a broomstick IN A THUNDERSTORM? And why in all heavens were you knocking on my window?"

He could almost hear her say the exclamation marks in the end of the sentences and couldn't help but grin widely. She just glared at him and crossed her arms.

"Either you tell me right now or I'll kick you out into the corridor and I doubt you'll be able to get down to the dungeons without getting caught. And if I'm any judge I think you regard yourself being in enough trouble for one day already."

He sighted and slid down against the wall until he was sitting on the floor and looked up at her.

"You can say that, yeah" he concluded in a hollow voice. He had almost forgotten about the earlier events of the day, but now reality came crashing down on him again. Why did real life have to be a bitch to him all the time? "How deformed is the stories by now?"

Granger actually cracked a small smile at this and unfolded her arms before she walked over to a chair. She'd clearly been sitting in it before he showed up, on the table were some papers and a big mug filled with something steaming slightly. She leaned back against the chair and tilted her head a bit to look down at him.

"Depends on what you call deformed. So far I heard versions were Harry was turned into a purple panda, that it was a planed plot by you to kill him and become the next Dark Lord by drinking his blood and there is one were you where teleported to Azkaban because you attacked some first year old. At least I think it was something along those lines. And that's the last I heard when I left the Gryffindor common room."

With a moan Draco buried his head against his laps.

"This is going completely arse over eyeballs" he stated and threw his broom on the floor in front of him. "I'm so God damn tired of all these rumors. Is it that hard to stop listening to what other people tell you and take a look at reality instead? I did not attack any 1st year students today, one of them just happened to run into me, I did not rape or molest any Ravenclaw girl, that was Blaise's doing, well not rape of course, he fell and grabbed her skirt on the way down, I doubt anyone saw much since the silly girl was wearing her school robes and by all heavens I didn't try to blow Potter up with some dangerous Dark Art potion." He groaned again and leaned his head further into his lap.

He was so tired and his head had started to hurt and he really didn't want to deal with all this anymore.

'Maybe it's better if I just leave Hogwarts' he thought. 'No matter what I do it doesn't seem to change anything. I try every day to be friendly and helpful and it always ends up with people running of or accusing me of doing something evil. Perhaps I should go back to being my old stuck up, rude, evil, egoistic, insensitive bastard? But that's not really me anymore, is it? Maybe how I really am doesn't mean anything to anyone else then myself. Everyone seem satisfied with holding on to who I used to be so why do I even try?'

"You still haven't told me what you were doing outside my window, Malfoy."

Draco stopped in his gloomy train of thoughts and lifted his head just enough to be able to look at the Gryffindor girl sitting at the table.

o

Harry yawned and looked across the table at Ron, who had fallen asleep on top of his homework and Ginny, still writing slowly, in the concentrated way that someone uses when they are so tired that even putting words together needs concentrating. The rest of the common room was almost empty since most students had gone off to bed already. He strangled another yawn and Ginny lifted her gaze from the parchment in front of her.

"Tired?" she asked.

He nodded and stretched over to shake Ron's shoulder. The redhead woke up with a snort and looked disorientated.

"Time to go to bed, mate" Harry said. "Tomorrow is another day of 'Harry what happened to your hair!' and 'Is it true that Malfoy tried to kill you in Potions?'"

Ron grunted and started to gather up his papers and books stuffing them into his backpack.

"Don't you ever get tired of all those people cornering you asking about every single thing happening around you?" he asked Harry.

"Sure I do, but it's not like I can stop people from talking to me. But I have to agree that the rumors sometimes are a bit on the insane side. There was a group of 3rd years talking at dinner about how I was in the hospital shaped as a pineapple or something like it when I was sitting only a few seats away. Sometimes I think they create these rumors as a hobby to have something to do."

"Some of them are really cruel" Ginny commented. "I hear a new version of how someone of the older Slytherins attacked some other students every day. But I've never seen them do anything when I meet them in the corridors."

"Maybe Hermione is right, it's not really fair to behave like they are the same as they used to be before the war. I don't say that we should trust them" Harry said. "But we can't really claim to have changed if we can't even alter our behavior against other people. And I have to admit that people like Zambini, and even Malfoy, really have tried hard to change."

"I still hate the blonde ferrets arse" Ron grumbled as he got to his feet. "No matter how much he changes I wouldn't trust him for a million Galleons."

"Oh, shut up, Ron!" Ginny exclaimed, almost sounding angry. "You always whine about how you don't like this or that about someone of the Slytherins. And you base it all on what kind of person they used to be. Stop being such a stuck up jerk, it makes you act just like they used to, judgemental, arrogant and childish!"

Ron glared angrily at his sister for a moment before he seemed to come to a decision and relaxed visibly. He pulled a hand through his curly red hair and sighted before looking back to Ginny.

"Okay" he said. "I'll try to but I won't promise anything."

Harry put a hand on his shoulder and gave it a supporting squeeze.

"You made it through a war, mate. This can't be worse than that."

As he finished his sentence Ginny got to her feet, slung her school bag over her shoulder and looked over at them.

"I'm going to start tomorrow by being nice to the first Slytherin I meet" she explained with a smile. "Good night boys."

They said their good nights and she left them, heading for the stairs to the girl's dormitories. From behind she could hear Harry's voice.

"Tomorrow is going to be a strange day indeed."

o

"Where do you want me to begin?" he asked in a low, dull voice. It didn't really occur to him that he was speaking to the girl he harassed for years, right now he didn't seem to care less, his mind was occupied with the fact that this had probably been one of the worst days he'd been through since school started. Hermione noticed the hollowness in his voice and her face changed to a view of concern.

"Hey, Malfoy" she said. The blond boy gave her another gloomy look, so unlike his normal stern expression. Something was really bothering him and to her own surprise she wanted to know if there was something she could do to help. But she didn't think this was the time or that he was the person that would appreciate something like a hug. Instead she decided for something that always helped her to feel better.

"Do you want something warm to drink?"

He gave her a puzzled look, but there was a spark of interest in those grey eyes.

"You have coffee?"

She was surprised at him asking for something so Muggle as coffee, but she didn't comment on it. Instead she conjured a mug and with a flick she filled it to the brim with warm coffee and walked over to him with it. She knelt down next to him and prompted the warm mug. Slowly he untangled his grip around his legs and took the mug in both hands, breathing in the smell and the steam.

'He seems so disorientated, so vulnerable' she thought. 'Nothing like the guy he used to be.'

She looked up and saw grey eyes watching her in silence.

"You wanted to know how I ended up here?" he asked, his voice almost back to its normal tone. Not the arrogant drawling one thought, just calm and collected. "May I first ask where 'here' is located, I thought the Gryffindor common rooms were in a tower."

Hermione nodded.

"That's true" she agreed. "But as you already guessed this isn't the common rooms. It's called the Room of Requirement. I think you know of it yourself. "

He nodded.

"But I thought it was only filled with old junk and broken, discarded or lost items."

"Ah, yes" she said, remembering his own encounter with the room. "You found it when you where looking for that cabinet right? Listen to the name. It's the room of something you require. In your case it was the broken cabinet. For me it's been many different places, changing to whatever purpose it was needed for. It's really a very cool place. I wonder who built it from the beginning. Or if it even was built, some things in this castle just seem to show up on their own accord."

She stopped herself when she realized she'd been rambling but the blond boy next to her didn't seem to be bothered. He took another sip of coffee and had a look around the room. She wondered what he was thinking.

o

Draco took in the small cozy room in front of him. There was table with a few chairs around it, a big open fireplace that crackled homely and sent flickering light over the bookcases on the opposite wall. Close to the fire was a couple of big, in lose for better words, fluffy armchairs that looked like they would swallow you if you tried to sit down in one of them. On his left there seemed to be a small kitchen-like area, with a sink and some cupboards. And in the far corner of the room, with the covers in a messy heap half hanging of it, was a bed.

"Do you live in here or something, Granger?" he asked, curiosity creeping into his voice. The brown-haired girl next to him shrugged, which made her tip backwards from her crouching position, landing softly on the floor. She didn't appear to bother and tucked her legs underneath her in a cross legged position.

"Kind of" she admitted. "The dorms are so noisy sometimes so I go here after dinner and get some time, sleep and silence to myself. Except when dripping wet Slytherins come knocking on my window in the middle of the night, that is."

"It was not in the middle of the night" he said in a fake protest. "It couldn't have been more than half past ten."

"How did you know what time it was?" she asked with a curious look on her face. "It wouldn't be a thing I'd keep track of flying around in a storm."

"Well, as far as I know you haven't been on a broom since flying lessons in first grade" he commented. She stuck her tongue out at him.

"That has nothing to do with it, Malfoy."

They looked at each other in silence for a while. Draco took a sip of his coffee waiting for her to start speaking again. He knew she would. But what she said surprised him.

"You know, I think this is the first normal conversation I ever had with you. It's actually really nice."

He gave her a look of disbelief over the mug and her face cracked into a smile.

"No really, I mean it" she continued. "It's not half bad talking to you when you stopped calling me names."

He couldn't help himself giving her a small smile back.

"I guess you want me to explain why I knocked on your window and ruined your silent time for you?"

She nodded and turned away from him for a second, pulling her wand out from her robe and pointing it to the table where she had been seated earlier.  
"_Accio_ coffee mug!" The mug drifted over to her and she turned back to him. "Please, do tell."

o

"…and when I realized how late it was the main doors was already locked and I didn't look forward to spending the night outside in the rain. So it was a stroke of luck that I saw your window from down there and that you where here to open for me" he finished. He had left some parts out, like the spat with Potter before he rushed out of the school, he didn't think Granger needed to know that since she was starting to actually act friendly towards him. He had told her about the hours he spent on the quidditch pitch and the broad details of the incidents that had resulted in his long flying session. It was so easy to speak to her, she didn't interrupt all the time with unnecessary questions or zoomed out because she thought it was boring. Once again he felt that relaxed feeling he felt when he was flying earlier.

"It seems like you had a really bad day" she concluded.  
He shrugged.

"This was worse than usually, but something like this occurs almost every day, since the younger students named me the next Dark Lord or something and anything I do have to be evil since it's me doing it. By Merlin, it wouldn't even make a difference if I hung a sign around my neck saying 'I like Muggles.'"

A small laugh escaped from Granger and he gave her a look of surprise.  
"What's so funny?"

"It just struck me that if you did something like that they would probably manage to translate it into that you like them as dinner or something like that."

Draco couldn't help it, he started laughing as well. He knew that she was right and it was both hilariously fun and very sad at the same time. Fun since it would only be interpreted like that if he or someone else of the older Slytherins did something like that. Sad for the same reason, that if anyone else did it they would only think the person was silly.

With a swift movement Granger suddenly stood up and stretched. Then she yawned.

"Sorry, I'm just really tired" she explained.

He threw a glance at the big clock on the mantelpiece realizing it was almost midnight. He'd been sitting on the floor talking to Granger for almost an hour without a single harsh word exchanged. Amazing, maybe the time of wonders wasn't truly over.

"I shouldn't have kept you up" he said as she walked over to the sink to deposit her mug.

"Not your fault" she stated over the running water. "I was the one asking you to explain your nightly adventures."

"I guess I better head back to my dorm" he said. She turned around and gave him a puzzled look.  
"If you leave now it's just a matter of when, not if, you get caught by one of the teachers."

"I'm good at sneaking and I know a lot of the shortcuts, Granger" he said, a bit annoyed. Why did it matter to her if he got caught?

"There is no reason for you to risk more trouble today" she stated in a calm voice. "You really don't need it." At this she flashed a small smile. "It would probably end up as you planning to let a Muggle-eating monster inside the school or organize some kind of Slytherin orgy in the Great Hall to bless it in the name of the Dark Lord."

He gave a chuckle at her words.

"Are you absolutely sure that you don't take part in creating those rumors about me?" he asked. "Those theories fitted in perfectly. Even thought there is no Muggles inside the school."

She shrugged.

"I just know how they work. The weirder they are the more fun."

Draco took a look around the room and his trademark smirk crept onto his face.

"I think I spotted a problem, Granger."

She gave him a questioning look.  
"There is only one bed. And don't think I'll sleep in one of those chairs, they look like they eat people."

Granger sent him another look before turning to the chairs in front of the fire. With a wave of her want they glided together and melted into each other, changing shape as they moved. When the transformation spell finished there was a very comfortable looking bed standing in the middle of the floor. She gave a triumphant little smile.

"There you go" she stated and winked. "It's good enough, even for a Slytherin."

He had to agree with her, the bed looked like the kind of beds you only saw in magazines, with a big soft bedspread and fluffy pillows. His body told him to get over there immediately and go to sleep.

"Thanks, Granger" he said.

For a moment she didn't move but then she walked over to him and held out her right hand.

"Hermione" she said.

He gave her a confused look.

"What?"

"My name is Hermione" she insisted, still holding her hand out. "Not Granger."

Reluctantly he took it.

"Draco."

They shook hands and both of them tried to understand the awkwardness in the situation. After years of fighting it was hard to just let go of the past. At least this was a good start.

Draco reached out in front of him to pick up his broom and head over to the bed, when a shout from Hermione made him look up. The Golden Snitch had apparently thought he was leaving when he reached for the broom and had left whatever hiding place it had occupied. But something was chasing it.  
"Horace, no!" Hermione yelled at the red shape whizzing through the air after the little Golden Snitch. The Snitch was zigzagging to avoid its hunter and apparently it associated Draco with safety since it headed straight to him and somehow managed to fly in under his robe. With a thud something else collided with his chest and he found himself meeting the eyes of a small scarlet little creature, with scales, a stout nose, golden spikes in a halo around its neck and a pair of wings half folded on its back. He looked up.

"Granger… err, Hermione, do me the favor of not telling me that this _thing_ that is clinging to my robes is a _dragon!"_

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**There, third chapter down. Its 9 pm here and I really want to go to bed (I get up ungodly early in the mornings for work) so this might not be all that perfect, but I think it's a fun chapter that gives a bit more of the story I want to tell. Somewhere around here was where I intended the ending from the beginning but now I feel that I need to continue this story until it's done, whenever that might be.**

**I also sidetrack a bit with another story I'm working on (since this was only intended as a one-shot I was actually working on a longer story as well) and today I did actually post a one-shot, it's a little story about Voldemort and his Death Eaters and a secret they don't like anyone to know about. Read it if you feel like it. **

**And last but not least, the Magic R's please – Read (obviously you already did that if you are reading this) & review!**

**I'd like to thank Look-me-up for the review pointing out the fact that the part with Harry, Ron and Ginny was kind of weird. It had its reason in the fact that a part of the text was actually missing. See what happened when I'm too tired to be posting fic's. I added the missing part of the text but I'm still not sure that the section is as good as it could be. I don't like writing about Ron and Harry, haha. **


	4. Concerning the reality of dragons

**A/N: Time to sit down and write some on the next chapter of this story. I'm visiting my parents right now but there should be some time over to write I hope. I really like how this story is unfolding but I really need to start figuring out a plot past the section where originally intended to end this. That means I'll find an audio book, play some kind of online game (like Runescape) or computer game (like Minesweeper) and just let the mind flow freely. Or I'll sit down and read through my 170 pages (normal paper size A4) with information that I printed out from different homepages, hehe. That was where I got the main idea from this story from scratch. Well, on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: **

**I don't own Harry Potter and I don't want to. I just want to enjoy my time writing this story. **

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**Chapter 4**

Draco kept flicking his gaze between the brunette and the little creature who was clinging to his chest and examining him with a curious look in its yellow eyes. It _looked _like a dragon, very much like a dragon. It was small, had crimson scales all over its body and a fringe of golden spikes around its neck. Complete the picture with leathery wings folded on its back and a long tail flicking back and forth over his legs. He averted his eyes from it and looked up on Hermione once again. She had a frozen look on her face displaying a mix of distress and amusement.

"This _is _a dragon?"

For a second she frowned, like she was trying to figure something out. Then she rubbed her brown eyes with one hand and at the same time pushing her hair out of her face.

"Yes and no."

"Yes and no? How can it be yes _and _no? It's either a dragon or it's not a dragon, it can't be both. That would probably screw up the fabric of the universe or something!" Draco stated, strain in his voice as the scaly little creature started to sniff his face.

"I don't really know how to explain it" Hermione said sounding genuinely puzzled. "Horace is a Chinese Fireball or at least it's the species he resembles. He's not really a dragon, you see."

"His claws feel very real." Draco cringed as when Horace climbed up on to his shoulder to smell his hair. "If he's not a real dragon how come he looks like one? And if he isn't genuine then why in the name of Merlin is he eating on my hair!"

Hermione reached down and picked the little creature up in her hands. Horace turned at her and made a hissing sound and small tendrils of smoke erupted from his nostrils. He looked quiet agitated at the fact that he was no longer allowed to chew on what he considered as something tasty and clearly eatable. Hermione held him up in front of his face and gave him a stern look.

"None of that!" she scolded the little being. He looked up at her, then climbed along her arm and positioned himself on her shoulder, sitting back on his hind legs and keeping his balance somehow. Both of them turned back to look down on Draco who was still sitting on the floor. He did not take his eyes of Horace as he got up from the floor and brushed his robes off. Draco placed his empty coffee mug on the windowsill and gave them half a smile before taking a look out the window. The rain had stopped some time ago and the storm was moving further away over the mountains. There were still flashes of lightning, showing up easily on the black sky but except from that the weather was much calmer now. He went back to looking at the girl who had been petting the little dragon on her shoulder.

"Okay" he said. "I think I need to hear this story from the beginning to be able to understand it. I'm sorry but it seems like it's my turn to keep you awake. Good thing its Saturday tomorrow don't you agree?"

Hermione nodded and proceeded to walk over to the bed she conjured for Draco earlier and sat down on it. Horace slid down her arm again and trotted the short distance over the cover to reach the pillows where he curled up into a ball, sticking his nose under his long scaly tail. His yellow eyes reflected the firelight as he fixed his gaze on the flickering flames. Draco hesitated for a moment and then sat down on the other end of the bed, still eying the little dragon with some suspicion.

Hermione stretched and pulled her legs up from the floor. When she was seated comfortably, enjoying the warmth from the fire she turned back to Draco.

"All this really starts back in 4th year, when the Triwizard Tournament took place. You remember Victor Krum?" Draco nodded and Hermione continued. "When he and the others were assigned the dragon task they had to stick their hands into a sack holding four small dragon statuette. Harry got the Hungarian Horntail as you know, and Victor got the Chinese Fireball."

Draco thought he knew where this was going now but he waited for Hermione to keep on talking.

"During the weeks they spent here, Victor and I spent a lot of time with each other. We even went to the ball together as you might know. Anyways, when the contest was over he had to leave together with the rest of the Durmstrang students. We decided to keep contact and the evening before he left he gave me the little dragon statuette that he received during the competition to keep as a memory. I used to keep it on my nightstand as a trinket and that was it until one day a few weeks ago when I was reading in the library."

"How unusual…" Draco commented, unable to stop himself. She glared at him and he made an apologizing shrug.

"In any case, the book I was reading had a section about dragons and different facts about them. And there was also a list of spells that was efficient when fighting dragons if you ever felt the need to do something so stupid. It wasn't until I reached the end of that list and started to read one concerning other spells that were useful when it came to dragons that a spell really caught my interest. Have you ever heard of the spell called _Draconifors_?"

Draco thought about it for a moment, like any other boy he had at one point or another been fascinated by dragons of course, but he could not call up on any memory concerning the spell so he shook his head.

"Can't say that I have" he concluded. "What about it?"

"_Draconifors _is a spell that can be cast upon any kind of dragon statues to make them come alive, very much like real dragons. The caster of the spell will then be able to control the dragon." She sighted. "I think that's where I failed when I tried the spell on my little dragon statuette, because Horace mostly does not care about anything I tell him." She shrugged and looked back to the fire. "I guess I should have read the instructions more carefully. Nevertheless, I tried it out and Horace is the result of it. He's a cute little creature, even if he can be a bit snappy at times. I'm glad he hasn't figured out how to breathe fire yet, but I guess it's just a question of time before he does. He learnt to fly in only a few days and as you saw before he sometimes has smoke coming out of his nostrils. He also seem too like chewing on random objects and climb on stuff. Before I saw him climbing I didn't know dragons could do it, or even why they would do it, since they can fly. But Horace seems to like climbing around, especially climbing on different people he meets. He kind of became a Gryffindor mascot for me, since he has the same colors and another name for the Chinese Fireball is Liondragon. Fitting don't you think?"

She stopped talking and then turned her eyes back to Draco when he did not answer her. Instead he was gawking at her and she gave him a confused look.

"Did I say something wrong?"

He pulled himself together, remembering that it was not a very Malfoyish pose to sit with your mouth open and stare at people.

"It's so you", he said. "You find something that catches your interest and then you just have to try it out. Did you even consider the consequences? What if he'd turned into a full size dragon and burnt the place down?"

"What do you mean 'so me?' It's not my fault I found it exciting and was curious to try it out! Don't talk to me like I'm a child that tried her mother's make up and made a mess of it!" She was angry, he could tell.

"No no!" he said hurriedly. "That was not how I intended to put it! I just meant that if you find something that catches your attention you stick to it until you looked at it from all different angles and knows all about it that's worth knowing. There is a reason you are called the smartest witch of our age."

Hermione stopped in mid rage and gave him a puzzled look. She tilted her head and gave him a scrutinizing look. She opened her mouth, and then shut it again, tilting her head in the other direction before she seemed to have come to a conclusion.

"Did you just give me a compliment, Ma… Draco?"

He shrugged.

"I guess I did."

He felt a somewhat awkward sensation when he replayed the last bit of the conversation in his head. She was so easy to be nice to, it felt like she was really giving him an honest chance to be himself instead of just treating him like shit for what he used to do and who he used to be. Before she could replay and make it even more awkward he took a look around the room and then turned back to her.

"Is there a bathroom somewhere in here?"

She nodded.

"Over there, the door is hard to see, it's just there at the end of the bookcase, close to the door to the corridor."

Draco took another look and got up, heading for the door. He could hear Hermione saying something to Horace and the little dragon made a kind of whistling noise when she picked him up, probably to carry him off to her bed in the corner. He reached the bathroom door and opened it. The room on the other side was small but comfortable. There was a sink and a toilet, a big cabinet, probably holding towels or something alike, a bath tub on four stubby golden colored feet in a corner and the floor was covered by a big fluffy white rug. He stepped in and looked into the mirror above the sink and made a face at his image. The boy in the mirror had unruly hair, his robes where a bit smudgy and there was hint of black rings under his eyes from lack of sleep. He took a look inside the bathroom cabinet and it indeed contained towels. He pulled one out and put it next to the sink, turning the water on and splashing his face with some of it. Then he dried himself of, hung the towel on a hook and continued his evening routine as well as he could when he was in an unfamiliar bathroom without any personal items.

o

When Hermione reached her bed and put Horace down on it he immediately climbed up one of the bedpost to reach a shelf hanging just above her nightstand. There was a soft cushion placed upon it and he rolled himself up on top of it, tail hanging down on one side. In a matter of minutes the little dragon was asleep, making a small whooshing noise that could be compared to a human snoring. Hermione gave the little dragon an affectionate look before she proceeded to put her bed in order. She took a look at the magic alarm clock, deciding against putting an alarm on it. Since it was already very late at night she decided that she deserved a sleep-in the following morning. If she happened to miss breakfast she could always go down to the kitchens or make something up in her little kitchen here. From underneath her pillow she pulled out the over-sized t-shirt she usually slept in and cast a glance at the bathroom door before proceeding to pull her pants and school shirt off, simply dropping them on the floor next to the bed. Draco stepped back out of the bathroom just as she was done pulling the big t-shirt down past her waist and she couldn't help herself when she blushed thinking that it was pure luck that he didn't step out half a minute earlier when she'd only been wearing her underwear. Yawning she climbed on to her bed and curled down underneath the covers, pushing the pillows around a bit to get comfortable and then turning her head slightly to look at Draco. He had also partially undressed as he only had his pants left on and at the moment he was occupied with arranging the bedspread neatly at the end of his bed before continuing with the pillows.

'Funny' she thought. 'I'd never consider him being a tidy person. It really does not fit with the rest of his personality at all. Or at least not the parts of his personality that I've learnt to know.'

"Good night" she said out loud and he turned his head around to look at her through a curtain damp blond hair hanging in front of his face.

"Good night, Granger" he answered and returned to arranging the pillows to his liking. "Sleep well."

When he was finished he made the lights in the room go out with a wave of his wand, so the only light source left was the few embers still glowing in the fireplace and the occasional flash of a far away lightning from outside. Hermione could see his silhouette as he stood by the bed for a second or two before slipping under the covers.

"My name is Hermione" she reminded him in a low voice. "I hope you sleep well to… Draco."

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**A/N: I know this is a super short chapter, sorry! But I need some time to figure out the upcoming plot and it didn't feel fair not to post something at least. I'll try to make it up with a longer chapter the next time, even if all my chapters seem to only contain about 3-4000 words. I'm not sure if I like the idea of writing longer ones, because very long chapters get tiring to read in the end. **

**What do you readers think, a lot of semi-long chapters or a few long ones?**

**Oh, and I really need to start writing sections with some of the other characters present in this story, it can't be all about Hermione and Draco. Well, it could, but I prefer having a working plot and storyline in the things I write or else they just don't work for me. Maybe thats the reason why I cant write short and simple stories?**

**And remember, reviews make Miriam very happy! And happiness is good for writing!**


	5. The morning after

**A/N: It's almost midnight here but I can't sleep so I might as well write some more and maybe get the plots going a bit. I'm still not sure where this is going but I'm just gonna let the plot bunnies drag me along and see where it ends up. **

**I haven't really considered any other parings except the main characters so any ideas or preferences from those of you reading this is welcome. Okay, any reviews at all are welcome, since it's so much more fun to write when you get some kind of response. **

**Disclaimer:**

**I don't own Harry Potter or any of J.K. Rowling's other work. I just like messing with her characters for my own personal entertainment. **

* * *

**Chapter 5**

It was a combination of bright sunlight and someone's terrible morning breath that woke Draco up from his sleep the following day. When he opened his eyes and saw the unfamiliar ceiling above him he was disorientated for a brief moment before the events of last night bunched up in his mind and asked to be remembered. He also concluded that something heavy was resting on his chest and breathing into his face with the worst and smelliest breath that he ever felt. Looking down his eyes recorded the sight of Horace, sound asleep on top of him. The little dragon was sleeping on his back, mouth wide open and snoring. Draco moved his arms out from under the cover and proceeded to move the little creature to the side, sitting up and rubbing his eyes. The sunlight was streaming in through the big window and right across his bed and he realized why Hermione had placed her bed in the corner of the room, since that part was still in some kind of shade. He cast a glance across the room and could just make out her brown hair sticking out from under her cover.

Sliding off his bed he made his way over to the bathroom, stretching and yawning. He had no clue what time it was but decided against checking. Instead he headed for the shower, feeling like he really needed one even if he had one less then twelve hours ago. He got in, locked the door behind him and stripped of his remaining clothes. He felt how sore his body was from the exercises on the quidditch field yesterday, muscles strained and hurt when he moved. Picking up the towel he used yesterday and wrapping it around himself he headed over to the tub. Flicking his wand against the tap made hot water start to flow down into the bath. It smelled a bit of pine and, he sniffed, probably citrus. It was a nice combination and Draco wondered if the room of requirement supplied it because he had felt the need for a refreshing and waking bath.

His pondering was distracted by a whirring sound coming from the pile of his robes that lay next to the sink. When he walked over to it and lifted on a piece of cloth the small his little Snitch erupted into the air and made a wobbly circle in the room.

"Hey there" he greeted it and then gave himself a small laugh for beginning his day talking to an object. The Snitch seemed to hear him and circled around him a couple of times before it just hovered in the air. The room was too small for it to be able to fly around much and the Snitch seemed to realize this because it floated down slowly until it was resting on the side of the sink again and then it retracted its wings back inside itself somehow. Draco could bet his broomstick on that if it for some reason would have been built with eyes it would have been looking at him now. It was a bit creepy how it followed him around but at the same time the Snitch was an entertaining companion.

He proceeded to turn of the running water and then slid into the tub.

"Oh god this is nice" he mumbled out loud when the hot water closed around his body and soothed his hurting muscles. He leaned his head back against the edge of the tub and closed his eyes for a moment. Even considering the very weird events of the past day he felt more relaxed now then he'd done in months, maybe he managed to release much of the pent up stress and anger while chasing the Snitch? He wasn't really ready to consider that spending an evening with someone who was nice to him also had affected his wellbeing a great deal. Instead he reached out for his wand and mumbled a spell to summon a couple of items from his own bathroom, including some clean clothes that appeared laying on the sink.

After spending almost half an hour in the hot water he felt much better and it was a lot easier to move his arms and legs now when the stiffness had almost gone away. He got up, pulled the plug out and watched the water swirl around his feet while he towel dried his hair a bit. He proceeded to dress and brush his hair and teeth before getting dressed in clean black pants and one of his white school shirts. He loosely draped his tie around his neck and flicked his want to vanish the pile of dirty clothes.

Poking his head out the door of the bathroom he could see Granger sitting on the side of her bed, rubbing her eyes and looking down at Horace who was skipping around on the rug beneath her feet making happy whistling noises. Her curly brown hair was unruly and she looked tired.

"Morning" he greeted and she jumped a bit at the sound.

"Oh, morning" she answered. "I didn't know you where still here. When I saw the empty bed after Horace woke me up I thought you had left already."

At the mentioning of his name Horace made another whistle and jumped up in the air, flapping his wings a couple of times to hover for a second before landing again. Then he turned his head around to give Draco a look and greeted him with a tweet before he turned his attention back to Hermione.

"Why is he jumping and whistling like that?" Draco asked, puzzled by the little dragons behavior. "Is there something wrong with him?"

"No, nothing's wrong, he's just trying to tell me he wants his breakfast."

"Breakfast? What does a dragon want to eat? Except for my hair, that is."

This earned him a smile from her when she got of the bed and headed for the kitchen area. She bent down and retrieved a container of some sort from a cupboard and then pulled the lid off. Horace was running around her feet making happy chirps until she placed a plate with some of the stuff down on the floor for him.

"If he's really that hungry, then why didn't he just fly up on the bench and eat?" Draco asked. "And what is it you're feeding him?"

Hermione shrugged

"Its ordinary cat food, he seems to like it. And I taught him not to fly up and try to grab the food just because he was hungry. He learns stuff really easy, but that's not too surprising, dragons are intelligent after all."

"I thought about one thing earlier" Draco said. "I saw one of those statuettes at the tournament, and it was much smaller then Horace is now. He's two feet long if you include his tail. Please don't tell me he's growing?"

Hermione gave Horace an examining look as he happily engulfed his food and then shook her head.

"No I don't think he is. I used the spell on the statuette and there was a whoosh and a lot of smoke and when it cleared he was sitting there looking confused. He hasn't changed in the last few weeks as far as I know."

They watched the little dragon in silence as he scraped his plate across the floor in his quest to eat all the food as fast as he could. When he was done he sat down on his hind legs, rubbed his nose with a front paw and a small red tongue stuck out of his mouth for a second to catch some small leftover around his mouth. Hermione picked up the plate again and put it down in the sink before turning to her bed, picking up the heap of clothes of the floor and heading for the bathroom. As she opened the door the Snitch whooshed out of the room and flew up under the ceiling much to the interest of Horace.

"No!" Hermione ordered in a sharp voice and the little dragon gave a sight and stretched out on the rug in front of the kitchen cupboards. When the bathroom door clicked shut behind her he once again lifted his head and gave the circling Snitch a hopeful glance and then, as a second thought, shot a glance at Draco who shook his head.

"She said no" he pointed out to the small creature. "You better do as she says because I can assure you she is very scary when she's mad." Horace gave another sight and put his head back on his paws.

o

Hermione was surprised to see that Draco was still there when she left the bathroom about a half an hour later. He was seated on the window sill and looking out onto the school grounds with a pondering look on his pale face.

"Why haven't you left for breakfast yet?" she asked him as she hung her towel over the back of one of the chairs at the fireplace. Apparently Draco had turned them back to their old shape sometime while she was in the bathroom. He shrugged without turning to her.

"I don't feel like dealing with all the rumors from yesterday."

"But you can't sit in the window for the rest of the day. You got to eat, you know. And you can't just hide away from everyone like you where scared to face them."

He turned to look at her, annoyance sparked on his face for a second before it faltered. He had been about to shout at her, she knew that, but for some reason he choose not to. She knew it was unfair to call him scared and talk to him like he was a small kid, but at least that sparked some kind of reaction from him when he retreated to his state of dull nothingness. She didn't like seeing him like that, it was so far from the proud and confident person he used to be that it scared her quite a bit. She sat down next to him, forcing him to move over a bit to make room for her.

"What are you looking at?" she asked and followed his gaze out over the school.

"Everything and nothing" he retorted, still traces of hollowness in his voice. Probably without realizing he continued. "Sometimes I wonder if it wouldn't be much simpler if I just left the school."

"You know that would just be running away from the problems" Hermione said in a low voice and his head snapped up when he realized he'd been speaking out loud. "I know it sucks to face all those rumors, there's been quite a bunch of them about me as well, but they aren't anything but rumors and the only thing you can do is either ignore them or prove them wrong. I know you're not the kind of person that runs away. And as Harry said yesterday, all these rumors about you and the other older Slytherins that attend to school this year has really gone too far now and most of you have really tried to show that you changed. Too bad people tend to stick to their impressions and even rub them of on other people."

Draco had turned back to facing the window and the yard below.

"Why are you acting so nice to me all of a sudden and why do you talk about me with Potter and the others?" He tilted his head to face her again. "Don't you think it's rude to talk about someone behind the persons back?"

Hermione blushed

"You're the one to say" she pointed out. "It's not like you never talked about someone behind their back. As far as I know you played a major part in most rumors about us Gryffindor's in the last six years."

Draco shrugged.

"I guess I never saw myself in the other end of it. I have to agree that it really sucks." He leaned his head against the window and sighted.

"Come on, Draco, stop being such a child!"

She reached out and pulled his arm.

"Come on."

He gave her a glare over his shoulder.

"Do you have to be so annoying? Why can't you just leave me alone? It's not like any of my friends bother with caring about what I do or don't do. They just leave me alone, so why can't you?"

"I think they care about you" she said. "And, really, I can hear your belly rumbling from here, how long is it since you ate something at all?"

"FOR ALL HEAVENS SAKE, GRANGER! STOP PULLING MY ARM AND STOP BEING SO GOD DAMN NICE TO ME! AND WHY IN ALL DAMNED HELLS DO YOU CARE ABOUT MY EATING HABBITS?"

She sighted and wiped some hair out of her face.

"It won't help yelling at me you know. Nor will it help to just push people away when they try to be nice to you. People won't treat you any differently if you don't start treating them differently nor will they believe that you changed. From what I know we have your mother to thank for Harry being alive. She changed and so did you, I know you did. Since the school started I haven't heard you say a harsh word to anyone of us, not even me, Harry or Ron. You just keep to yourself and that's fine, but somehow you seem to turn farther and farther away from everything. You can't close in on yourself, that will probably only end you up in St Mungos or something."

"I didn't ask for a mental analysis of my wellbeing, Granger. I tried to prove that I'm not the arse I used to be, but I guess I been a jerk for too long. Whatever I do it's turned into something I would have done before. I don't care what people think anymore."

"But you do!" Hermione insisted. "Or else you wouldn't sit here in a window with me and sulk. If you didn't care what people thought about you then you wouldn't even try to change or prove to others who you really are. Come on, let's go have some breakfast." When she didn't receive any response she added "Please."

Draco turned his grey eyes to her and just looked at her until she stared to feel uncomfortable. Then he sighted and nudged for her to move so he could get up.

"Let's go then."

o

Draco stood at the door and waited for Hermione. She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder before heading over to her bed where Horace was sound asleep.

"Now you behave while I'm gone" she said to the little dragon that had opened one eye to look at her.

"Why don't you bring him?" Draco asked. "It's probably boring spending the whole day in here."

"I never showed him to anyone except Harry, Ginny and Ron. I don't know how people would react to him. What if the professors decide to turn him back to stone or take him away from me?"

"If you tell me to face my so called 'fears' I don't think it's more than fair that you have to do the same." Draco said, leaning on the doorway. "Bring him, I think he will enjoy it. And if there's any trouble I'm sure you'll solve it, with your brains and all." The last sentence was said with a small smile.

"You want to come with us to breakfast?" Hermione asked the dragon. Horace yawned and stretched and then climbed up her outstretched arm to poise himself on her shoulder.

Draco pushed the door open and stepped out into the corridor. As soon as the door closed behind Hermione it disappeared. Draco gave her a questioning look.

"How do you get back to 'your' room if it vanishes as soon as you leave it?"

"I just walk back and forth past the wall and think about my room and it shows back up. It just does. It's almost too simple, really."

The rest of the way down from the 7th floor was made in silence. They meet a few students and Hermione greeted them with a happy smile and a 'Good Morning'. Sometimes Draco made the effort as well, but this mostly rendered him odd glances, more odd then those given him for walking down a corridor with the Gryffindor Princess, that was. Or it might have been the small dragon perched on her shoulder that attracted them. You never knew what attracted the attention of the students.

As they reached the Great Hall and stepped through the big doors Draco turned to Hermione and was about to say something when he was almost knocked over by someone running up to him, grabbing his arms and shaking him.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN YOU DAFT IDIOT?" Blaise Zambini shouted as he shook his blond friend back and forth. "YOU'VE BEEN MISSING ALL NIGHT!"

Draco tried to answer which turned out to be very hard when you where rocketed back and forth.

"Zambini, I think you could stop shaking him if you want an answer from him" he heard Hermione's voice from behind him. "Or else I wouldn't be surprised if his head comes off."

Blaise stopped but kept his grip on Draco.

"Where have you been, mate?" he asked in a lower voice. "I spent the whole evening looking for you. No one knew where you where and you didn't show up for dinner. You can't blame me for getting worried."

"I'm sorry, Blaise" Draco said, shrugging his shoulders lose from his friends grip. "I went to the quidditch pitch yesterday and stayed to long and didn't get back before the doors were locked."

Blaise gave him another worried look.

"You mean you spent the whole night outside? You should be in the Hospital wing being checked up, you might get really ill being out in that weather."

"Don't worry, I wasn't out for more than an hour. Thankfully for me I brought my broom and was lucky enough to find someone still awake that would open a window for me" he said, throwing a glance over his shoulder at Hermione. Blaise turned to her as well and flashed a smile.

"I have to thank you for taking care of my somewhat daft friend here. It's good to know that someone except me is there to save his sorry bum when he gets himself into trouble. I guess he was quite a mess after being out in that weather." He gave her another grin before turning to Draco.

"Well, you got back inside" he said. "How come you didn't go down to the common room?"

Draco shrugged and dragged a hand through his blond hair.

"It was way past curfew and she was wise enough to convince me that I didn't need to get into more trouble then I already was. So I stayed with her overnight."

There was a sharp intake of breath behind him and Hermione and they both spun around to face the source of it. Hermione groaned, knowing that this would not go well.

"HERMIONE! YOU SPENT THE NIGHT WITH MALFOY?"

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**A/N: There it is. I know this chapter is kind of lame, and that the story is moving slow, but I had to get this part down before I spun on. It didn't really turn into the story I intended but I'm trying to make the best of it. I know where I want it to go now, I just hope I can meet up to the challenge of making it a good story.**

**Reviews are very welcome, they keep spirits up. **

**Happy Midsummer for you all!**


	6. How to handle gossip

**A/N: Today I have a little treat for you guys. Not only am I posting a new chapter here, but soon I'm also posting the first chapter of a story I spent the last few days writing and that's actually has more than one chapter completed but I'm not going post them all at once. I'll probably switch between chapters on this story and on the other one, which means more updates overall, but the same update speed on each individual story. **

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**Chapter 6**

"Thank you, Weasel" Draco said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "But maybe next time you could consider shouting just a little bit louder so that all students, even those currently in the other end of the castle can hear you properly?"

He could hear Hermione whisper under her breath, something sounding a lot like 'Oh God, oh God.' His next thought was that he could hear her because the whole hall had gone dead silent behind them. There was even the clatter of someone dropping something on the floor.

He sighted. In front of him was the other two thirds of the Golden trio as well as Weasel's little sister. To his surprise the youngest Weasley didn't sport the same facial expression of rage that her brother did but held a mix of puzzlement and amuse very similar to the one of the Golden Boy himself. To be absolutely honest they seemed greatly entertained by the show her brother had caused. It actually looked like the little redhead tried to stifle a giggle.

The Weasel on the other and was without a doubt furious. With fist clenched and his whole body shaking he was turned to Draco, with his face starting to sprout the same red color as his hair. Somehow Draco' statement had managed to get through somehow because when he next spoke it was in a much lower tone.

"If you so much as touched her, ferret…!" he hissed and did what he probably thought was an attempt to look threatening, resulting in spouting the facial expression of someone getting an uncomfortable object stuck in the wrong place. Overall he looked like a beetroot with digestion problems and Draco felt the corners of his mouth starting to jerk upwards. This seemed to piss the redhead of even more and the next thing he did didn't surprise Draco at all. As the Weasels fist came heading for his face Draco took one step aside and with one foot he kicked the legs out from under the furious young man making him topple over and end up on the floor.

"I'm not going to fight with you over something you imagined up in that fluffy head of yours" he stated as the redhead got back on his feet and threw him another angry glance. He was ready for another assault when the petite Weasley girl stepped in between them. She hardly reached even to her brother's chest, but she proceeded to poke him in it with one finger while anger was radiating of her.

"Ronald Bilius Weasley!" she shouted. "I don't know why the only two brain cells you seem to posses never kicks into work when you really need them! Where did the stupid idea of screaming bloody murder and then trying to get into a fight sprout from? Has your diluted sense of sanity evaporated completely? Now apologize and shut up for them to explain what's going on here!"

She huffed angrily a last time and spun around, for a short second glaring at the two Slytherins in front of her before her features softened up a bit. She looked from Blaise to Draco and back to Blaise again and seemed to come to some sort of decision. Taking a step forward she extended a hand to Blaise. Draco felt another smile jerk his lips upwards when his friend only gave the girls hand a dumbfounded look.

"Come on, take it. I won't bite and I don't have any kind of disfiguring germs as far as I know" the Weaslette stated. She motioned to the Golden Boy and Weasel. "We had a talk yesterday and I decided that I would be nice to the first Slytherin I meet today. And since Hermione already been nice to ferret-boy I thought it was your turn. Plus, I don't feel like being nice to him right now since the only one allowed to make my brother look stupid is me or one of his brothers. Anyways, my name is Ginevra Weasley, you probably know that, but you can call me Ginny."

With some hesitation Blaise reached out and shook her hand, casting suspicious glances at Potter and her older brother. When nothing happened he seemed to relax.

"Good morning, Ginny" he said, flashing a smile. "Even if I don't really understand why you decided that I should be the person in your 'Be-nice-to-Slytherins'-project I won't say no to a pretty girl talking to me. My name is Blaise Zambini and you probably know my grumpy friend here, I can promise you that he's a nice person under that sour looking face of his…. Draco, why are you smiling? Stop smiling! I can't claim to be the charming, nice and lovely one of us if you stand there sporting a smile like that! You are ruining my image, mate!"

Unable to stop himself Draco started to chuckle under his breath.

"This is so surreal" he said. "You know the whole hall is watching us right now and they were expecting a fight after that outburst. Except for me tripping Weaselbee over nothing really happened. Instead we just stand here talking and they have no clue what's going on. And you two just shock hands like you made some kind of agreement. I would pay fifty galleons just to know what they are all thinking right now. Hell, I'd pay that amount of money to only get to know what they think was implied in the claim I spent the night with Gra… Hermione. Okay, I know what most of them think, but with the almighty powers of the gossip mill there's probably already half a dozen theories going. And I'm rambling and I know it."

He stopped, grinning in a slightly worrying way.

"Mate, you look psychotic" Blaise stated. "Are you all right?"

"How could I be all right? With that shouting session Weaselbee not only poured enough water on the wheel to keep the mill going for weeks, he literally dumped into the ocean. The 'fact' that I spent the night with your Gryffindor Princess is a scandal story worthy of the Witch Weekly. Do you really think something like this will stay inside the school? Or even inside the country. You people are famous and I and Blaise belong to old well known families. This will be a field day for the newspapers!"

"That depends."

It was the first time Potter spoke up throughout the whole ordeal. He had a serious look on his face, far from the chased and frazzled look Draco know he himself was showing.

"It depends on how we decided to approach this" Potter continued. "If we would start denying it and claim it was a misunderstanding or something alike, it would just make them all the more interested and they would say that there was no reason for us to deny anything if there wasn't something going on. That's the way they work. If you say something they will interpret it as the opposite. But what if we just went on like nothing out of the ordinary had happened? We all had friends from other houses staying over at our common rooms sometimes when it's become too late for them to go back to their own. What if we would treat this the same way? I know you don't consider us as friends, Malfoy, but personally I think it would be the only way not having this turned into a gossip disaster. So what do you guys say? Let's call it a truce or all of us well be facing much worse in the close future."

To his own surprise Draco nodded in agreement. He knew that the statements where true as well as that the only chance they had of stopping the stories before they exploded into a tittle-tattle supernova based on what someone heard from a friend that knew someone that had been there, was to treat them like everything was normal. As normal as you could call it, being 'friends' with Potter and the rest of the group. He shrugged and took a look at the persons standing in front of him. Weasley or he guessed it was Ron now, had calmed down a lot, but still held a suspicious glance in his eyes. Draco didn't blame him. His little sister had a small smile on her lips, Potter… Harry was patiently waiting for a response of any kind and Blaise gave him a nod in agreement. He turned to his left to look at Hermione. She was chewing on her bottom lip, she always did when she was pondering a problem of any kind. He stopped dead in his observations. Why did he know that she did that? It wasn't like he spent time observing her behavior. He shrugged his shoulders again and turned to Potter… Harry, god damn it was going to be a hard time changing from last to first name basis.

"It seems like no one is about to protest" he said. "It's actually a good idea, good thing you are used to dealing with gossip running wild, Potter."

The black haired boy gave a small smile.

"And who am I to blame for a big part of that?" he stated meeting grey eyes with green. Draco couldn't help but laugh, he had to admit it wasn't hard to get along with the Gryffindor's, even when their unspoken leader was accusing him. Mostly because he also knew that the accusation was true.

"And now what?" It was the female redhead speaking this time. Draco mentally shook himself. He had to stop thinking about them in terms of description or using old insulting nicknames or else no one would believe that they were actually friends.

"Well, me for one went here to get some breakfast" Blaise said. "But we seem to have run across a small problem in that department since we don't sit at the same table. If we split up now it wouldn't give the effect that we're after. So what do we do?"

"Hermione, is there an actual rule of the students sitting at another house table?" Harry asked the brunette. She had been absently scratching Horace under the cheek but turned to the dark haired boy when he spoke to her.

"Not really, it's not really uncommon for Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor students to sit at each other's tables from time to time. But I have to admit that a Slytherin student sitting at the Gryffindor table or the other way around is probably unheard of so far."

She picked Horace down from her shoulder and held him out do Draco.

"Could you hold him for a while? I need to get my hair up before he tangles himself in it even more."

Draco took the dragon from her and was surprise to find that Horace didn't weigh more than the average cat. Looking in to yellow little eyes he poised the little creature on his arm and watched as Horace sniffed his robes. Apparently the smell was familiar by now because the little dragon let out a sharp whistle that made quite a few people turn their heads to look at him instead. Ignoring his new audience Horace proceeded to climb his way up Draco's arm and sit on his shoulder industrially sniffing his hair as he went.

"He likes your shampoo" Hermione stated as she pulled her hair up in a tail. "Oh, take him down from there, now he's trying to eat it again!"

With some help from a reluctant Blaise, Draco managed to free himself without getting to much hair lost in the process. Horace sprouted a sulking look as he hung over Blaise's arm.

"I'm surprised you brought him, Hermione" Ginny stated. "You always said you where afraid how people would react to him."

"I'm still worried but I can't keep him hidden away forever and sometimes you have to face the things that you don't like." She finished giving Draco a meaningful glance and to his own surprise he stuck his tongue out at her. She gave Blaise a questioning look regarding Horace still hanging on his arm but the Slytherin boy just shrugged as a reply, clearly showing it didn't bother him to carry the little dragon.

"I vote for the Slytherin table" Harry said to the others surprise. "Well, it's for two reasons. We are four people while they are only two and as the second reason, they have fewer students which mean that there is actually a lot of empty space at the end of their table. Without actually waiting for a reply from any of the others he started walking, quickly followed by Ron and Ginny. Hermione gave the two Slytherin boys a smile and motioned them to follow.

The silence that had started to fill up with the chattering of the students returned with full force as the four Gryffindor students sat down at the Slytherin table. Draco and Blaise where sitting closes to their house mates while the others sat at the end of the table but all six of them proceeded to ignore all glances, whispers and outright ogling from their fellow students. Food showed up on the serving plates in front of them and while chatting about this and that they proceeded to eat their breakfast. Everything actually went by as normal until Horace slipped down from Blaise's lap and decided to go for a stroll underneath the table. He made it all the way over to the teachers table before being noticed and was carried back by professor Slughorn.

"Horace!" Hermione exclaimed at the sight of her pet.

"I guess you are not referring to me, Miss Granger" the professor said as he arrived holding the little dragon in a firm grip. The shade of red spreading across Hermione's cheeks gave away her embarrassment. "What an interesting pet you have here" Slughorn continued. "May I be so bold as to ask where you acquired such a creature since it's illegal to keep a dragon outside the specifically controlled areas?"

Once again Hermione told her story about her experiments with the spells, filling in her friends and Blaise on the information as well.

"… and since he isn't a really dragon I don't see how he could fall under the laws regarding dragons?" she finished. The professor gave her smile and a look holding a glint of admiration.

"Twenty points for Gryffindor" he stated loud enough for many of the surrounding students to hear. "That's for excellent use of an advanced spell as well as for good knowledge about the rules that apply to certain magical creatures."

He handed the little dragon back to Hermione.

"Maybe you should consider a leash, at least when you are in crowded areas?" he asked. "And may I ask why such a fascinating little creature happened to answer to the same name as myself?"

Hermione blushed again and for a second she avoided the professor's eyes. For a brief moment Draco thought he saw a smirk in the corner of her mouth when she turned her face back to meet the eyes of professor Slughorn.

"Well" she said, and now Draco could clearly hear the mischief in her voice. She made a hand motion to the dragon curled up in her lap. "Horace here as somewhat of a temperament and when something does not go the way he wants it he sports a facial expression much similar to the one that you, professor, shows when there is a student in your class not meeting the required standards you ask for. Ronald here was considerate enough to point this fact out to me one day after one of your lessons and from that point on it was the name of my dragon. If you would consider it a justification to yourself he actually seems to like the name."

Draco was impressed. He would never have thought that the Gryffindor Princess would speak to a teacher like that and while Ron was hiding his red face in his hands, Hermione didn't avert her gaze from the professor. Slughorn seemed to consider what she just told him before breaking out into a rumbling laugh.

"Another five points to Gryffindor for honesty" he said and smiled at them. "I'll leave you to finish your breakfast. And Miss Granger, it would be very nice if you considered bringing Horace to one of my lessons some day. I'm sure I could find some kind of treat that he'd find enjoyable."

He left them and headed back to the teachers table. Draco couldn't help but nudge Hermione in the side.

"That was very Slytherin coming from the Gryffindor Golden Girl" he said with a laugh. "I didn't think the Slytherin traits where something that would rub off on people just because they sit at our table."

She shrugged.

"I doubt your Slytherin traits where involved. I'm sorry Ron" she continued "but you can't expect me not to take out some kind of revenge on you for screaming about my nightly encounters like that. "

Ron's head snapped up from his breakfast to look at her and he paled a bit.

"Don't put it like that, please!" He said. "You make it sound like something actually happened."

When neither Hermione nor Draco commented his freckles turned even more visible and a slight look of panic flashed past his eyes.

"PLEASE don't tell me that something actually happened!"

Hermione was the first one to start laughing, shortly followed by Draco. They leaned against each other and laughed, the tension from what chaos the the earlier confrontation might have ended in finally dropping. Draco calmed down enough to meet the eyes of the redheaded boy who looked like he would rather face a wild hippogriff then imagine one of his closes friends having some kind of intimate relation with the blond boy next to her.

"That you will never know for sure, Weasley." He stated with a wink before turning back to his breakfast.

* * *

**A/N: Finally done! I spent three days with a writer's block trying to shape up this chapter! Now it's finally done but I should have been asleep two hours ago because I have work tomorrow, but I just wanted to finish this when I finally got the inspiration I needed!**

**I hope you enjoy it! I know I did and I hope it brings out a laugh or two! And **_**please **_**push the review button down there, if only to tell me if the chapter was good or bad! Any ideas about the upcoming plot are also welcome! I just love to see those review, every single one puts a smile to my face!**

**Until next time! **

**/Miriam**


	7. Sleepover

**A/N: As you all know the updates will be concentrated around the weekends, due to the fact that I don't have much spare time writing during the weeks. There is this evil thing called real life and work that stands in the way of being able to spend hours in front of the computer, building my story up. And I was stupid enough to forget my doodles for this chapter laying on the desk at work. A part of me hopes that none of my co-workers will find it and another part says that they would probably not be able to make out anything from my random rambling anyways. And since the wonderful smell of my boyfriend's home made pizza is drifting in here as I write I'm quite distracted… And I just managed to press some random button that made half my text highlighted and then removed it… yay…! Thank God for the 'Regret' button. **

**Thanks for your patience, waiting for this chapter! It's a long one, just for you guys!**

* * *

**Chapter 7**

As the group finished their breakfast and was on their way out of the Great Hall together Blaise and Draco turned out of old habit to continue their way down to the dungeons.

"Where do you think you are going?"

The voice of the Weasley girl made them both stop and turn back to face the quartette standing at the bottom of the stairs giving them a mix of puzzled and entertained looks.

"Well…" Draco begun but stopped himself, knowing that it wouldn't be appropriate to drawl at his so called 'friends' if they where to keep the view of them being something else then enemies afloat. He gave an apologetic shrug.

"Old habits die hard. We usually spend the weekends in the common room being lazy, eating snacks, sleeping, playing cards…"

"… and watching girls." Blaise filled in. At this comment the four boys shared a laugh while the two girls just gave them glares telling that they didn't think it was that much fun.

"Can't be much to watch" Ron concluded. "Most Slytherin girls are as pug-faced as Parkinson."

Draco looked at him and then laughed again. Blaise looked disapprovingly at his friend and then the rest of the group.

"Some of them are actually good looking. At least when the lights are out…" he said, shrugging and then laughing at the looks of surprise mixed with disgust that he received from the others. "But I have to admit you got prettier girls in your house."

He winked at Hermione and Ginny and the girls gave him bright smile in return and it was Harry and Ron's turn to look a bit miffed. Some students passed the group by on their way to whatever they were going to spend their Saturday doing.

"Well" Hermione said to break the silence that was about to stretch out between them. "I'm not spending my day stuck in a stuffy old dungeon. Let's grab some snacks from the kitchen and head up to my room."

Ron gave her a confused look underneath his bangs of red hair.

"But boys can't get to the girls dormitories in the Gryffindor tower…" he begun but was cut off by Ginny smacking him on the head.

"She didn't mean the dormitories, you dimwit. She was talking about the Room of Requirement. You know she practically live up there anyways."

Ron gave her a sheepish look and proceeded to look down at his feet. Hermione sighted and walked past Draco and Blaise, being closely followed by Ginny and the two girls headed through the dungeon door, since it leads to the painting that hides the door to the kitchen area.

"You are so whipped, man" Blaise told Ron as the four boys were left alone in the hall. Ron looked up giving him an annoyed look and Draco couldn't help but grin to himself. The Weasel acted like he'd just been scolded by his mother, not his little sister, but Draco concluded that maybe all male Weasley's where like that due to the fact that the Weasley house was so obviously ruled by Mrs. Weasley. That little she-weasel seemed to share that trait with her mother.

Once again the uncomfortable silence settled between the four young men, it was hard to come up with any kind of topic that wouldn't end in an argument between them. As far as Draco knew there wasn't really anything that they could really agree on. Thankfully they were distracted by Horace, who had been perched on Harry's shoulder.

The little dragon had his front pawns on top of Harry's head and was stretching as high as he could reach, looking around the hall and making small whimpering noises.

"Oh no" Harry said as the little dragon scrambled with his bag legs against Harry's neck to get higher. "He's looking for Hermione, I don't think he's ever been left on his own with someone else before. Sure, she leaves him in her room most of the time, but then he has familiar stuff around him and he knows that she's coming back again. Hey little mate, calm down with the climbing you're about to claw my ear off!"

With his glasses askew the black haired boy struggled to get the crimson paws to let go of their grip on his hair, but since he couldn't lift the dragon high enough for him to lose contact with his head Horace struggled to stay on top of his high outpost, scanning the room for his owner. He had proceeded to make whistling noises rather than whimpering, Draco wondered if the dragon thought Hermione was too far away to hear him otherwise. He studied the struggle for another few seconds before walking over.

"Potter if you just hold still, like that yeah, then I can grab him like this. Let go now. There, that wasn't so hard now was it? Hey, little critter" he addressed Horace as he held the dragon in a firm grip. "You can't use people as living ladders like that. It's very rude, you know."

The little dragon looked up at him with yellow eyes he could have sworn looked worried. Then the stubby muzzle sniffed on his robes and what could only be called delight spread over Horace features. He nuzzled his nose into Draco's robes and proceeded to make himself comfortable, hanging from Draco's arm like a content cat. Draco looked up on the other three boys who all sprouted amused looks. He knew that the creature clinging to his arm had probably just called him 'Daddy' in a dragon's way of expressing it.

"Not a single word, Blaise" he warned his dark haired friend. "Or else I'll feed this little bugger chili pepper until I can use him as a flame thrower on your arse."

He turned his attention back to Potter who still had problems hiding a big smile.

"And you, Potter, weren't you sprouting pink hair after that mishap in potions yesterday?"

Harry gave him a nod.

"Pink?" Blaise laughed. "Ah ye, I remeber, you had a very flathering shade of purple and pink. But it doesn't look pink to me."

"Concealment charm" Potter explained, grinning back. "It's amazing what you can pick up from girls make up advices, you know."

"To bad it can't conceal your whole face that would be the perfect result." Draco said. "It might even make you look good."

"At least I have a nice personality to fall back on" Harry retorted. "To bad you can't use that as a backup plan, Malfoy."

"Could you two stop bickering like children and give us a hand with this stuff?"

Hermione's voice reached them from behind a wobbly pile of different kinds of food. Ginny also held an armful of mixed snacks, fruit, sandwiches and bottles of butterbeer.

"What the heck?" Blaise exclaimed as he saw the amount of food the two girls where struggling to carry. "Do you intend to feed a whole army?"

"No, but four teenage boys, which is almost the same thing."

"Honestly, Granger" Draco said, amused. "Are you sure that you really are the cleverest witch of our age?"

She proceeded glared at him after tilting her head to one side of the assorted food in her arms to be able to see him.

"I never said I was" she snapped, and took a step sideways to keep the pile steady. "It's everyone else that keeps claiming that!"

"I think they must have been misinformed at some point" the blond Slytherin said.

"What are you blurting about, ferret boy?"

Draco laughed.

"It's simple, really. Why do you keep on trying to hold on to all those items, watch that bottle it's slipping, when all you have to do is …. _Wingardium Leviosa!" _

All items the two girls had been holding slowly floated up in the air and calmly started bobbing up and down at shoulder height. Draco gave them a wide smirk and winked at Hermione.

"I get to be the smartest sometimes."

She huffed at him and tried to look indicated but then she broke into a wide smile.

"Yeah, and it must feel really good for you to show that you finally mastered a spell that we learnt in our first year."

"And who's bickering like children now then?" Blaise asked. "Draco haven't you heard that muggle saying, that you tease the girl you like?"

Draco glared and pushed strands of blond hair away from his face.

"What do you know about muggle sayings anyways? It's probably something weird about it, just like that one about a rain of cats and dogs. It can't rain cats and dogs."

"It's not literary, Draco" Hermione said. "It's another way of saying that it's raining a lot."

"Yeah, see what I mean!" Draco stated. "Muggles say one thing and mean something totally different. And could we stop just standing around and get going?"

"Yeah, I want one of those sandwiches" Ron said. "I'm hungry."

"You had food ten minutes ago!" his sister wailed. "Why did you think we brought so much food?"

Still laughing the group made its way up the stairs, followed by the floating food.

o

They received more than one odd glance as they made their way up past the different floors. Students who hadn't been in the Great Hall when Ron had yelled at Hermione and therefore had not seen the group have breakfast together sprouted outright shocked expressions with gaping mouths and eyes as big as saucers. Draco sent glares back which at least made many of the younger kids snap their mouths shut and run of as fast as they could. It wasn't until they meet a group of older Ravenclaw students that the situation actually turned somewhat hostile. When they passed each other one of the Ravenclaw's halted in their way and gave the group a look of disbelieve and disgust.

"Honestly" he said and shook his head. "I never thought that any Gryffindor, especially not the Golden Trio would sink so low as to be seen with this kind of scum. Really, Granger, isn't it degrading enough that you with your wits are in Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw without you being close to the filth of those wannabe Death Eaters?"

Draco glared at the young man and in the corner of his eye he could see Blaise clench his fists. Another word from the Ravenclaw's mouth and Draco was sure that his best friend would punch the guy's teeth out.

"I'm surprised that someone claiming to belong to the most intelligent house in the school is stupid enough to say something like that, let alone hold views like that about fellow students. Seriously, Goldstein, you should be ashamed of yourself, you know that? Sure, most of the Death Eaters came from the Slytherin house but that doesn't mean that all of them are scumbags. If you really think I'm smart enough to be in Ravenclaw I'll gladly inform you that if this kind of judgmental stupidity is a part of the deal I'm happy that I'm in Gryffindor."

"Then I guess it's that famous Gryffindor kindness that has made you befriend these two. It's probably too much for any of you softhearted noble Gryffindor's to see anyone suffer from being an outcast no matter how much they deserved it."

This was spoken by one of the other boys in the group and was met by approving nods from his friends.

"I can assure you, Carmichael, that I would never befriend someone out of pity for them. Now I must ask that you step aside and let us continue."

Hermione spoke in a low voice but there was a dangerous undertone in her voice that didn't pass her friends by.

"Always the same polite and nice little knows it all, aren't you?" Goldstein said, glaring at her. "To bad your lack of judgment when it comes to making new friends will only put you in more trouble. Do you honestly think they have changed their ways? Wait and see, soon they'll be back to their old selves and no matter how kind you are to them you will be nothing but a filthy Mudblood in their eyes!"

At that point Draco's brain did the thinking without asking him and his hand flew to the pocket holding his wand and his fingers was touching it when a spell came whistling by from behind his shoulder and hit Goldstein squarely in the face. The boy screamed as red blisters erupted on his forehead and cheeks, and then screamed again when he without thinking pressed his palms to his burning face. Draco threw a surprised glance over his shoulder, to see both the Weasley siblings holding their wands, Ginny's still sparkling slightly from casting the spell. She pocketed her wand and strode past him to reach the man she just hexed and kicked him hard on the skin, making him drop to his knees still whimpering in pain.

"Don't you ever call her that again!" she snapped. "Hermione is ten times the witch you will ever be you worthless bag of shit. I think the sorting hat must have been temporarily insane to sort you into Ravenclaw since your brain must be the size of a pea!"

She was about to kick him once again when Blaise put a hand on her shoulder.

"I think he got what he deserved, don't you? I even think you made him cry." He turned to the two boys who were still standing there with shocked expressions. "If I were you I'd take your friend here to the hospital wing so Madame Pomfrey can have a look at him. And if you are as smart as you claim I hope you learned your lesson from this. And another thing, if you keep on judging people based on who they used to be or what one of their ancestors might have done then you're in deep water. And I promise you, there will be sharks…"

As fast as they could the two boys helped their friend to his feet. Goldstein was still clutching his face that was almost covered in blisters by now. Blaise took a steadier grip around the little redhead's shoulders and pulled her away a few steps.

"Let's forget about this little incident and just go back to having a pleasant Saturday together with our friends, okay?"

Ginny nodded but still sent deadly glares in the direction of the retreating Ravenclaw's.

"By Merlin's beard, Weaslette, I'm happy you never did something like that to me." Draco said with a laugh. "To be honest, I'm surprised you never did, I must have called Hermione that word thousands times."

"I could hex you to if it would make you feel better" she answered in a serious voice, but they could all see the corners of her mouth twitching upwards.

"No thank you, I'll pass on that one if it's all the same. I prefer keeping my handsome features intact."

"What ones would that be? You must be hiding them really well because all I can see is your normal ugly face " Ron said grinning. "One of my sister's hexes might even result in an improvement."

"Okay enough of making fun of Malfoy's facial features, its getting old" Hermione said with a sight. "I just want to get my hands on a big mug of coffee right now so hurry up, wont you?"

o

Laying slumped across one half of a sofa, balancing a cup of coffee on his chest and holding a handful of cards in his right hand Draco smirked at Potter who was sitting right across the table from him. They were playing a muggle card game called Poker and he had found that he was really good at it, this was the second time he faced the Golden Boy alone, since the others had already folded or lost. He seemed to have real luck with his cards in this game. Of course they had altered the rules a bit and were playing with and assembly of Wizard and Witches Cards but overall he thought it was a fun game, particular since he was wining most of the time.

In the other end of the sofa Hermione was curled up, reading a book in the light from the candles on the table and occasionally watching the boys play cards. Ginny was seated on the floor playing with Horace, who was chasing a string she dragged along the carpet, much like an overgrown scaly kitten. She had spent most of the afternoon try to teach him tricks, like sit and roll over but as soon as she ran out of crisps to feed him as a reward he was no longer interested.

Both girls looked up as Draco exclaimed "I win!" for the third time in a row. Ginny yawned and stretched as she stood up.

"Can't we do something else? This is getting quite boring."

"I don't think it is" Draco said, grinning.

"Of course not, you win all the time and I want to quit to before I run out of chocolate frogs to bet." Blaise stated, throwing a glance between his pile of frogs and the much larger pile next to Draco.

"Well it was your idea that the winner would get a chocolate frog from the loser."

"That was before I became the loser! And look at Potter, he has even less frogs then me!"

"I'm not complaining" the dark haired boy said with a shrug. "I got so many of them from random people as thanks for saving the world that I can probably fill a vault with them."

At this both Draco and Blaise burst out laughing.  
"You mean you got sent a life supply of chocolate frogs for saving the world? That's some weird reward, really! Luckily for you I'm good at Doker…"

"Poker" Hermione corrected from behind her book.

"…whatever, so I can spend my time winning over you and relive you from some of those frogs."

"At least I beat you in Quidditch" Harry retorted. To his surprise Draco sprung to his feet, almost knocking his mug of coffee out over himself.

"The Snitch!" he exclaimed to the others puzzlement. Spinning around to face the sofa he focused his attention on Hermione. "My Snitch!" he repeated but was only given a blank look from her. "The one that I had last night that Horace was chasing around. It was still in here when we left but it's not here now. Where is it?"

Finally it seemed to dawn on Hermione what he was talking about and she took a look around the room. It wasn't completely the same room as it had been the previous morning, for one it was bigger, with a real kitchen area, a couple of sofas and chairs assembled around a table and there was no bed present at all.

"I guess it's still in 'my' room of requirement. You see, even if we are in the room it's not the same room as my room, because this time when I thought about it I thought about a place that would benefit all of us. I think that if we would go out of this room and I would concentrate on my room it would still be in there. To be honest, I'm certain that it will, since I left Horace in there multiple times and he was always in there when I 'retrieved' the room again. It seems that objects or for that matter, animals or humans left in the room can be retrieved easily if you either concentrate on the room you left them in or the item or person in question."

Draco sat back down on the sofa again, somewhat calmed down.

"I hope your right, I don't want to lose it. And I agree with Weaslette, we really need something else to do before we fall asleep out of boredom."

She nodded and put her book down.

"I need to finish of my homework for Transformation…" she begun.

"No!"

"Hermione!"

"Homework?"

"I think I'll just fall down dead instead if that's your idea of something less boring." Draco stated and took a sip of what was left of his coffee. "Honestly, Granger, homework is not fun, not in any universe. I'd suggest going outside, but since the rain is pouring down and it's already getting dark so I doubt that idea is much appreciated. "

"What about the Halloween party then" Ginny filled in as she tossed a small bouncing ball across the floor for Horace to catch. "It's only a week left now and I haven't even come up with a costume yet."

"I want to go as a pirate" Blaise said, grinning. "You know, with a hook as a hand and eye patch and stuff like that. Maybe even a parrot?"

"You could take Horace" Hermione said with a smile. "He beats a parrot any day. Would you like to borrow him?"

"Wow, really, that would be so awesome!" the dark haired Slytherin exclaimed. He got up from his chair and waved his hand in front of him. "Yaarh, me lass would ya like to taste me hook or the flame of me dragon?"

He glared as the others broke out laughing.

"I'm supposed to be a terrifying pirate and you laugh! I think I have to work on my pirate image before the party because I can't have you guys laughing at me the whole evening. Anyways, what do you guys plan to go as?"

Hermione shrugged and leaned back on her side of the sofa, pulling her feet up from the floor and pushing at Draco with them to get some space.

"Stop taking up the whole sofa, will you? And I don't know what I'll dress up as, it's hard to come up with something that's a bit unique. Every girl is going to dress up as a fairy or a mermaid or a cat or something, it's no fun going as the same thing as ten other people. It's hard to come up with something new."

"I want to dress up as that warrior princess on that muggle TV show you made me watch, Hermione" Ginny said. "You know that girl in the leather outfit with the throwing ring?"

"Xena?" Hermione asked but was interrupted by Ron.

"I won't let you go to the party half naked, dressed in some kind of leather outfit!"

The other three male occupants in the room simultaneously covered their heads with their hands. When nothing happened they slowly peered up between their arms half expecting to find Ron turned into something nasty. When they found him looking his normal self they turned their eyes to Ginny whose mouth had become a very thin line in her face. Anger was radiating of her in waves and for every second that passed her brother became more and more pale, knowing he stepped over the line this time.

"You have no right whatsoever to tell me what I can and cannot do, Ronald Bilius Weasley" Ginny said in a dangerously low tone. "I'm not your baby sister anymore, I been through this war as well as you! And I doubt that dressing up for one evening, no matter what I dress up as is going to put me in any situation more dangerous than being in the middle of a damn battlefield!"

"Ginny, please calm down" Hermione said, placed her book down on the table and stood up to give her friend a hug. "Ron cares about you, in a clumsy and stupid way I admit, but it's because in a way you will always be his little sister. And even if he disagrees with your choice of costume I think you would look absolutely smashing in an outfit like that."

Ginny's shoulder slumped as the girl relaxed visibly and she sank down on a chair between Blaise and Harry.

"I'm sorry I just get so tired of all of my brothers trying to protect me from the whole world. Its sweet but it really gets on my nerves. I can take care of myself."

"Yeah and if someone would even consider doing something to you that you don't like you would Bat Bogey Hex them into the next millennium" Harry filled in with a grin.

"I don't even want to know what the Bat Bogey Hex is" Blaise said giving her a doubtful look.

Ron was still pale but seemed to relax somewhat since his sister made no effort to hex any of his body parts of.

"You don't want to know, believe me." He dragged a hand through his red hair and scratched at his neck before taking a look around the room. "You know, I think I'm starting to get hungry."

"Again? You already ate four of the sandwiches and two bags of crisps. Is it even time for dinner?"

"It's actually far past dinner," Hermione said. "Look at the clock, it's almost eight pm already. We missed dinner by far. And speaking for myself I don't feel like walking all the way down to the kitchen. What do you say about leaving this room and I'll summon mine, I know there is some bread and other stuff in my kitchen, we could make toast, it's better than nothing."

Nodding in agreement they all gathered what belongings that they spread around the room and one after the other stepped back out into the by now dark corridor. No one else could be seen but that didn't surprise them, it was only an hour left until curfew and on top of that it was Saturday, most students spent time hanging out in their common room with their friends. As soon as Hermione stepped out through the door, as the last one to leave, it vanished into the wall without leaving a single mark. She set of pacing down the corridor in one direction, turned and walked past the group the other way and then repeated the action another two times before stopping. The door reappeared with an audible pop.  
"That's a really neat feature" Blaise commented. "And you say it holds whatever you ask for?"

"Yeah, I guess" Hermione answered as she opened the door once again. "None of us really tried anything extreme, just rooms we needed at certain points. And now I mostly use it as a bedroom because I grew so tired of sharing a bedroom with the other 7th year girls. Many of them hid during the last year of the war and never came close to its horrors and therefore they are still somewhat airheaded and shallow in my personal opinion."

Blaise didn't seem to pay any attention to the last part she said, contemplating something while stroking his chin.

"So if I paced back and forth out here three times thinking about naked girls would I get a room full of them then? Ow! Weasel your sister is violent!"

"That was a ridiculous question," Ginny exclaimed and slapped the dark haired Slytherin on the arm again. "Why is all that you boys think about naked girls in one way or the other!"

"There is nothing wrong with naked girls!" the four boys chorused making Hermione laugh. She held the door open for the others and they all stepped in.

"Nice room, Granger," Blaise commented. "It's a bit small, but really cozy. I have one question thought."

"Hmm?" Hermione answered while looking through different cupboards in the small kitchen and placing bread and other things on the counter with the help of Ron and Ginny. Draco had been more or less assaulted by his Snitch when he entered the room and it was now circling his head at high speed to his annoyance and Harry's amusement.

"There is only one bed. Where did Draco sleep last night?"

There was a crash as Ron dropped a jar of marmalade on the floor. Hermione glared first at Blaise then at Ron.

"Ron stop being so damn clumsy and dramatic! Draco did not sleep in my bed, I conjured the armchairs into a bed for him. Now stop overreacting at every sentence including his name and help me with the food!"

o

Draco yawned and tried to stretch his aching body into a better position. He was resting on a newly conjured sofa placed in an angle against the fireplace. Opposite him was another sofa, mirroring the placing of the first one and on the floor between them where a heap of big fluffy pillows. After finishing the food with only a couple of small mishaps they had conjured the armchairs into sofas to fit two people instead of one and the heap of pillows on the floor for whoever didn't feel like sitting in a sofa. They spent the following hour eating and chatting, actually getting along without an argument for once. When they got bored of casual talk Blaise and Draco had started to ask questions about the muggle world, being honestly curious about it and wanting to know more than the dull facts handed out in Muggle Studies. Somewhere along the lines of Harry explain the principles of a microwave Hermione, who was sitting next to Draco on the sofa had drifted off to sleep and therefore slumped against Draco's shoulder, without waking up. When he realized she was sleeping he had grabbed a pillow of the floor, but it in his lap and made her small body slide down to rest with her head in his knee instead of uncomfortably leaning against him. This action was met with some odd glances from the other occupants of the room but he merely shrugged carefully.

"She's tired I guess, we didn't get much sleep last night."

This comment made the male Weasley send him a glare for a second before getting punched in the shoulder by his sister.

"Hermione told you to stop with the stupidity. You heard her, nothing happened so stop overreacting like that." She said, stifling a yawn. "And I'm tired as well. Maybe it's time for us to get back to the Gryffindor tower?"

"That could prove a bit hard to pull off" Harry said from his position on the floor. "It's almost two hours past curfew and I don't have my cloak anymore as you know. To be absolutely honest I think it would be much better to just conjure a couple of beds and sleep in here. IT looks like Hermione's little getaway is more crowded than ever nowadays. Would you mind waking her up, Malfoy and ask if we're allowed to stay?"

Draco looked down at the girl sleeping in his lap, facial features smoothed out as she relaxed and her brown hair spread around it like a halo. Yes, he minded waking her up when she was resting so peacefully on his lap. But he knew he had to, she would wake up if he tried to move anyway. Shaking her shoulder carefully he saw her eyes flutter open and focus on him.

"Hello there sleepyhead," he greeted her. "It's not time to rest yet and I can't have you sleeping in my knee or Weaselbee over there will have my head on a plate." In a theater whisper he added. "I don't think he likes me."

Hermione sat up halfway, leaning on her elbow and rubbing sleep out of her eyes with the other hand. Still looking drowsy she turned to the other occupants of the room.

"Why did you wake me up?" she asked in a slightly raspy voice. "I was having a nice dream and everything."

"We just wanted to ask you if we could stay here over night instead of risking to get caught for being outside past curfew."

"What is this, a hotel for people not being able to get back to their common rooms in time?" she asked, half serious. "Well, that's for the past two days at least. Of course you can stay, you didn't have to wake me up to ask that."

"And we couldn't have you sleeping in Malfoy's lap either," Ron added.

"Oh my God, Ron, stop being such a child. You don't need to protect me like you protect your sister. If I want to sleep in Draco's lap then I will sleep there, okay?"  
She rolled her body of the sofa and got to her feet, heading to the small bathroom and then stopped to turn her head over her shoulder.

"We can't fit more than four beds in total in here, so that means some of us have to share," she stated in her normal calm voice. Then she grinned. "And just because you keep making a fuss about it Ron, AND because he's proven to be a very comfortable human pillow, Draco is sharing with me. Now it's up to you guys to decide who sleeps where in the other three beds. Have fun."

And with that she closed the bathroom door behind her, leaving a room in absolute silence behind her. Draco sat, still holding the pillow in his lap watching in glee how Weasley tried to say something, opening and shutting his mouth like a goldfish. Ginny was fighting to stifle a giggle between her hands and Blaise and Harry exchanged glances.

"1 - 0 to Granger." Blaise finally said. "I must say she keeps on surprising me all the time. Who could have guessed that the girl in the Golden Trio was such a sneak? Oh, and I put dibs on the only cute girl left!"

"You do not!" the two Gryffindor boys chorused. Ginny glared.

"I'll go with Hermione on this one," she said. "I'm old enough to make my own decisions and since I decided to be nice to Blaise today and he kindly offered me a sleeping place I will accept."

"He didn't offer it!" Ron wailed. "He claimed a right to share a bed with you!"

Another glare from Ginny made him shut his mouth before he said anything else.

"I repeat myself, I'm old enough to make my own decisions, and I made this one. Now will you shut up and conjure a bed for me?"

o

When Hermione reentered the living area it was crammed to call it the least. Two beds stood between the fireplace and the wall with the door to the bathroom and a third one was placed between the kitchen area and the small table she had been seated at the previous day. Scanning the room she took in Harry and Ron sitting in only their boxers on the two beds closest to the fireplace, looking sullen. She guessed Draco had not informed them about the sun shining in on anything place at that spot but decided against telling. They deserved some kind of small revenge for misunderstanding anything concerning her and Draco on purpose. Or at least Ron did. She was surprised to see Ginny sitting cross-legged on the third bed, wearing an oversized t-shirt that looked a lot like a transformed version of her school blouse, chatting to Blaise as the Slytherin was unbuttoning his shirt. As Ginny felt her looking she turned and gave her a wink, smiling. Hermione smiled to herself, it was just like Ginny, if she could tease her brother she would and if it involved a shirtless good-looking guy it was just a bonus in the redheaded girl's opinion. Now she could understand why the other two boys held annoyed expressions as well. Indeed, typically Ginny.

Exploring the rest of her room with her eyes she found Draco kneeling at the kitchen counter, dressed in the same way as he had been the prvious evening, which ment he was no longer wearing a shirt but instead showing of a well toned upper body. He was watching Horace eagerly eat his dinner from a plate on the floor. Hermione felt a pang of guilt about forgetting to feed her dragon but she was happy that Draco had remembered.

"Goodnight boys" she said to Harry and Ron as she walked past them, receiving muttered replies and then she called across the small room. "Night Ginny, good night, Zambini!"

"The name's Blaise," came the muffled reply from the Slytherin since he was pulling his shirt over his head, apparently not carrying about unbuttoning it all the way. "Sleep well all of you."

Hermione jumped up on her bed and moved so she was furthest against the wall, fluffing up her pillows and watched the others as they one by one visited the small bathroom and proceeded to curl into their beds. Since Draco had been feeding Horace he was the last to leave for the bathroom and on his way over he flicked his wand in the air, making the lights go out. A ray of light from inside the bathroom illuminated the room for a second before the door closed and then it was only the soft glow from the fire left. Hermione could hear low whispers, apparently Ginny and Blaise was holding a conversation about something. Harry and Ron lay in stubborn silence and Hermione suspected that they were still annoyed at her decision about sharing her bed with Draco as well as Ginny sharing one with Blaise. She knew she was acting childish as well but she was so tired of them always having a say in her decisions. Her train of thoughts was disrupted when a small shape curled up on top of her feet and let out a small sight.

"Sleep well, Horace" she mumbled and turned over on her back before closing her eyes. She was almost asleep when she felt a weight shift the bed a few minutes later.

"Don't rock the bed" she mumbled. "I'm almost asleep."

"I'm sorry about that, maybe I should go sleep next to Potter instead?"Draco asked in a low voice.

She had to slap her hand over her mouth not to laugh out loud.

"You're insane" she scoffed in a low voice.

"I think you are the one suffering from mental instability, really. Why else would you let me sleep in your bed?"

"Why shouldn't you be able to? It's just sleeping, really."

"That's not what Weaselbee thinks."

"Ron is just being a baby, just because we dated for a while he now treats me like the same way he treats Ginny, like a little sister even though I'm older than him. He's just over protective. And I can understand why he won't trust you after everything that has happened."

"And why do you trust me then?"

"I don't really have an answer to that, it's just a feeling I have, and I think that you really have changed from that spoiled kid you used to be."

"You mean that I finally grew up?"

"Something like that I guess. I guess I've just decided that I like the person you've become. Can you be quiet now so I can get some rest or do you need me to read you a fairytale before you go to sleep?"

She could almost feel him grinning before he spoke again.

"Na, not a fairytale, but what about a good night kiss?"

She huffed.

"Now you are the one suffering from some kind of mental meltdown. No way, _Malfoy_!"

He chuckled in the dark next to her, the faint red glow from the fire illuminating his blond hair.

"Well then, _Granger_, if I don't get a good night kiss from you, then you can at least have one from me. "

And with those words and before she was able to react he leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

"Sweet dreams, Hermione," he whispered before turning his back on her.

* * *

**A/N: There now it's finally done! I started writing this at the end of June but I've been way to busy and had some kind of writers block on this chapter. I know it's a bit dull but somehow I like it anyways. It's by far the longest chapter I wrote for this history so far. In Word it's 10 pages long and I wrote 7 of them today. Hopefully this means my writers block has vanished for now. Anyways its soon time for my summer vacation and then I will have a lot more time to write (after I spent approximately 2 days dead asleep to begin with). **

**I'd like to say thank you to all my sweet reviewers so far! When I feel like I have trouble coming up with a chapter I read through the reviews and know that you're out there waiting for an update. **

**I love to get different ideas on events and pairings that I can use in the story as well!  
So, read and review please! **

**Until next time!**

**/Miriam**

**P.S. Review, I know you want to!**


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